Eliza, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Eliza, 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 Eliza 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 Eliza — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eliza — the short answer
Eliza, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 81 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 81 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 Eliza's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eliza's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eliza
Each reading below is measured for Eliza itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEliza runs about 206 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
MeasuredEliza 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 Eliza is in
Eliza sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Eliza's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Eliza
Every plant below cleared Eliza's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eliza?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Eliza
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eliza. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHANNON R ZIEGENHORN FARMCAFO · 2.5 mi
- 5 miles N of New BostonNitrate · 2.7 mi
- SAND LOT BARNSCAFO · 3.1 mi
- 015N06W23DDDD 1992USGS Muscatine IL 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- SCOTT FISHER FARMCAFO · 4.1 mi
- MSF FARMS - NEW BOSTONCAFO · 4.5 mi
- REED FARM #1CAFO · 4.6 mi
- SW 90th St and Highpoint RdNitrate · 4.7 mi
- 4 miles S of Muscatine , IANitrate · 4.9 mi
- REED FARM #2CAFO · 5.4 mi
- WINTERS CREEK, INC.CAFO · 5.4 mi
- ALEDOPFAS · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eliza'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 Eliza.
Total Sites
391
within ~10 miles of Eliza
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
29 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eliza
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eliza
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eliza, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Eliza — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (212 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Eliza
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 Eliza average
Your land is one point inside Eliza
Everything above resolves to Eliza as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 81 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 Eliza Average
Eliza Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Eliza
- ●One soil character for all of Eliza
- ●Frost dates read at Eliza's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eliza's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eliza
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eliza, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eliza averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eliza — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eliza average
How we know this about Eliza
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 Eliza’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 Eliza
When does frost risk typically end in Eliza?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eliza typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Eliza?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eliza typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eliza?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eliza sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eliza?
The federal record around Eliza is a meaningful one — 391 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (212), the nearest CAFO record about 2.5 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 Eliza?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eliza's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eliza'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 Eliza’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eliza's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 81 acres it covers and 391 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eliza's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eliza's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 391 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eliza, the closest CAFO record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eliza's boundary and the 81 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eliza'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 Eliza's 81 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eliza's 81 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eliza you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 81 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 2.5 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 Eliza-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisEliza sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides