Dixon, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dixon, 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 Dixon 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 Dixon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dixon — the short answer
Dixon, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 5b is Dixon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dixon's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dixon
Each reading below is measured for Dixon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDixon runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDixon sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Dixon is in
Dixon sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dixon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Dixon
Every plant below cleared Dixon's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dixon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Dixon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dixon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lincoln Way Materials Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Green Acres Mobil Home ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Oakwook CemetaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- KATHERINE SHAW BETHEA HOSPITALBrownfields · 650 ft
- 22N 9E-32.1a1Nitrate · 750 ft
- Katherine Shaw Bethea HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CON AGRA FOODSBrownfields · 950 ft
- Schreiber Foods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- City Of Dixon IlUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CARQUEST OF DIXONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- EAGLE CREEK RENEWABLE ENERGYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Shank Shell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dixon'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 Dixon.
Total Sites
219
within ~10 miles of Dixon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dixon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dixon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dixon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dixon — Superfund (6 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Dixon
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 Dixon average
Your land is one point inside Dixon
Everything above resolves to Dixon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 city 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 Dixon Average
Dixon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Dixon
- ●One soil character for all of Dixon
- ●Frost dates read at Dixon's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dixon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dixon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dixon, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dixon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dixon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dixon average
How we know this about Dixon
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Dixon’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Dixon
When does frost risk typically end in Dixon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dixon typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Dixon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dixon typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dixon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dixon sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dixon?
The federal record around Dixon is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dixon?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dixon's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dixon'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 Dixon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dixon's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,085 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dixon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dixon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dixon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dixon's boundary and the 6,085 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dixon's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dixon's 6,085 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dixon's 6,085 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dixon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,085 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dixon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisDixon sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides