Elkville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Elkville, 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 Elkville 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 Elkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elkville — the short answer
Elkville, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 491 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 491 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 7a is Elkville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkville's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkville
Each reading below is measured for Elkville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElkville runs about 225 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
MeasuredElkville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Elkville is in
Elkville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elkville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Elkville
Every plant below cleared Elkville's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elkville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Elkville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- General WoodworkingUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Casey's General Store #1727Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Elverado CUSD #196 SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ELVERADO HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Elkville MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Bedar Citgo ServUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Rail SidingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Bugaieski Oil Company (Former Val's Pit Stop)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PROFESSIONAL AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- Southern Illinois Regional LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- PRYSMIAN CABLES & SYSTEMS USA LLCBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- PRYSMIAN CABLES & SYSTEMS USA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elkville'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 Elkville.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Elkville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elkville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elkville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Elkville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Elkville
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 Elkville average
Your land is one point inside Elkville
Everything above resolves to Elkville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 491 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 Elkville Average
Elkville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Elkville
- ●One soil character for all of Elkville
- ●Frost dates read at Elkville's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkville average
How we know this about Elkville
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 Elkville’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 Elkville
When does frost risk typically end in Elkville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkville typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Elkville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkville typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elkville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkville sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 23, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elkville?
The federal record around Elkville shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elkville?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elkville's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkville'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 Elkville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elkville's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 491 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elkville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 6 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkville's boundary and the 491 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elkville'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 Elkville's 491 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elkville's 491 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 491 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Elkville-wide figureread your own land →