Dix, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dix, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Dix lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Dix — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dix — the short answer
Dix, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Dix's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dix's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dix
Each reading below is measured for Dix itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDix runs about 213 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDix sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Dix is in
Dix sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dix's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Dix
Every plant below cleared Dix's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dix?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Dix
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dix. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Boyd StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- T & B Bestway, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Wilson Door CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Formally Keele MillingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LATHAM POOL PRODUCTS INC D/B/A VIKING POOLS-ILToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- Dix AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Jefferson Fire Prot Dist StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Dix Car & Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Jerry's PolebarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Tate Oil Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Boozer JamesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Kell Grade SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dix's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Dix.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Dix
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dix
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dix
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dix, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dix — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Dix
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dix average
Your land is one point inside Dix
Everything above resolves to Dix as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Dix Average
Dix Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dix
- ●One soil character for all of Dix
- ●Frost dates read at Dix's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dix's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dix
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dix, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dix averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dix — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dix average
How we know this about Dix
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Dix’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Dix
When does frost risk typically end in Dix?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dix typically lands around Apr 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 22.
When is the first frost in Dix?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dix typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dix?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dix sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 17, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dix?
The federal record around Dix is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dix?
From about Oct 1 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dix's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dix's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Dix’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dix's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,327 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dix's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dix's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 31 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dix, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dix's boundary and the 1,327 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dix's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dix's 1,327 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dix's 1,327 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dix you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,327 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Dix-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisDix sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides