Farmington, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Farmington, 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 Farmington 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 Farmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Farmington — the short answer
Farmington, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 963 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 963 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 Farmington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farmington's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farmington
Each reading below is measured for Farmington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarmington runs about 201 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
MeasuredFarmington 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 Farmington is in
Farmington sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farmington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Farmington
Every plant below cleared Farmington's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farmington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Farmington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farmington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETRO GOLD INCBrownfields · 450 ft
- Petro GoldUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Van Fossen PeggyUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Farmington Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- James H Fash & Son IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- QUALITY DISPOSALBrownfields · 850 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Casey's General Store #2043Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- J AND M OIL COBrownfields · 1200 ft
- HucksUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Farmington Liquor MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bitner Mobil ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farmington'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 Farmington.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Farmington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farmington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farmington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farmington, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of Farmington. 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 Farmington
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 Farmington average
Your land is one point inside Farmington
Everything above resolves to Farmington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 963 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 Farmington Average
Farmington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Farmington
- ●One soil character for all of Farmington
- ●Frost dates read at Farmington's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farmington's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farmington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farmington, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farmington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farmington average
How we know this about Farmington
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 Farmington’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 Farmington
When does frost risk typically end in Farmington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farmington typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Farmington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farmington 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farmington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farmington sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 13, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farmington?
The federal record around Farmington is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Brownfields 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 Farmington?
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 Farmington's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farmington'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 Farmington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Farmington's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 963 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farmington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farmington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 27 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farmington, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farmington's boundary and the 963 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farmington'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 Farmington's 963 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farmington's 963 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farmington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 963 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Farmington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisFarmington sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides