Freeburg, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Freeburg, 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 Freeburg 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 Freeburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Freeburg — the short answer
Freeburg, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Freeburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freeburg's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Freeburg
Each reading below is measured for Freeburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFreeburg runs about 233 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
MeasuredFreeburg 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 Freeburg is in
Freeburg sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Freeburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Clair County.
What Grows in Freeburg
Every plant below cleared Freeburg's own zone 7a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Freeburg?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Freeburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Freeburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 238 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Freeburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Freeburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Casey's General Store #2094Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- Groth Implement CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JERRYS TRUCK & AUTOBODY INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 7256Brownfields · 1100 ft
- PARCO MAINTENANCE, INC.Brownfields · 2000 ft
- 1 mile N of FreeburgNitrate · 0.5 mi
- JACK SCHMIDT CHEVROLETBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PTL MANUFACTURING, INC.Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Parrish, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- River King #1 MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Freeburg Sand & GravelUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freeburg'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 Freeburg.
Total Sites
492
within ~10 miles of Freeburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Freeburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Freeburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freeburg, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Freeburg. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Freeburg
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 Freeburg average
Your land is one point inside Freeburg
Everything above resolves to Freeburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Freeburg Average
Freeburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Freeburg
- ●One soil character for all of Freeburg
- ●Frost dates read at Freeburg's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freeburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Freeburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freeburg, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freeburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freeburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freeburg average
How we know this about Freeburg
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 Freeburg’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 Freeburg
When does frost risk typically end in Freeburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freeburg typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Freeburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Freeburg typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Freeburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freeburg sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 29, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freeburg?
The federal record around Freeburg is a meaningful one — 492 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (293), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Freeburg?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Freeburg's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freeburg'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 Freeburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Freeburg's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,366 acres it covers and 492 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freeburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freeburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 12 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 492 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Freeburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Freeburg's boundary and the 4,366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Freeburg's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Freeburg checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Freeburg's 4,366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Clair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Clair 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 St. Clair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Freeburg's 4,366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Freeburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Freeburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisFreeburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides