Ferris, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ferris, 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 Ferris 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 Ferris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ferris — the short answer
Ferris, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Ferris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferris's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferris
Each reading below is measured for Ferris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFerris runs about 212 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
MeasuredFerris 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 Ferris is in
Ferris sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ferris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hancock County.
What Grows in Ferris
Every plant below cleared Ferris's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ferris?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Nov 1 — 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 Ferris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PROFESSIONAL SWINE MANAGEMENT, LLCCAFO · 350 ft
- PINNACLE GENETICSCAFO · 350 ft
- ILDOT DIST 6Brownfields · 1400 ft
- CARROLL FARMS PARTNERSHIP - MCCALL FINISHERCAFO · 3.3 mi
- CARL SANDBURG COLLEGEBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- Western Il Electrical CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Carthage High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Morton Buildings IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- METHODE ELECTRONICS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- Casey's General Store #2547Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Don's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- BOBS AUTOBODY REPAIRBrownfields · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferris'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 Ferris.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Ferris
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferris, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ferris — CAFO (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ferris
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 Ferris average
Your land is one point inside Ferris
Everything above resolves to Ferris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ferris Average
Ferris Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ferris
- ●One soil character for all of Ferris
- ●Frost dates read at Ferris's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferris's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferris, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferris averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferris average
How we know this about Ferris
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 Ferris’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 Ferris
When does frost risk typically end in Ferris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferris 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 Ferris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferris typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferris sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferris?
The federal record around Ferris is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest CAFO record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ferris?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ferris's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferris'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 Ferris’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ferris's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,259 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ferris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferris, the closest CAFO record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferris's boundary and the 1,259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ferris'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 Ferris's 1,259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hancock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hancock 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 Hancock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferris's 1,259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO 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 Ferris-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisFerris sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.