Exeter, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Exeter, 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 Exeter 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 Exeter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Exeter — the short answer
Exeter, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 442 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 442 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 6a is Exeter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Exeter's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Exeter
Each reading below is measured for Exeter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredExeter runs about 207 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
MeasuredExeter sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Exeter is in
Exeter sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Exeter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Exeter
Every plant below cleared Exeter's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Exeter?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Exeter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Exeter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUFFSPFAS · 1.4 mi
- FREESEN, INC.Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- Valley Imrov Const CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Smith Robert LUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Valley Improv Const CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Western F.S., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Blue Jay JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Scott Farm Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Bluffs DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Hannel Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Placke FrancisUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Truck ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Exeter'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 Exeter.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Exeter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Exeter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Exeter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Exeter, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Exeter. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Exeter
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 Exeter average
Your land is one point inside Exeter
Everything above resolves to Exeter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 442 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 Exeter Average
Exeter Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Exeter
- ●One soil character for all of Exeter
- ●Frost dates read at Exeter's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Exeter's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Exeter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Exeter, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Exeter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Exeter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Exeter average
How we know this about Exeter
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 Exeter’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 Exeter
When does frost risk typically end in Exeter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Exeter typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Exeter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Exeter typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Exeter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Exeter sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 13, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Exeter?
The federal record around Exeter shows 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest PFAS record about 1.4 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 Exeter?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Exeter's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Exeter'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 Exeter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Exeter's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 442 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Exeter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Exeter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 27 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Exeter, the closest PFAS record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Exeter's boundary and the 442 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Exeter'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 Exeter's 442 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Exeter's 442 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Exeter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 442 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.4 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 Exeter-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisExeter sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides