Galena, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Galena, 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 Galena 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 Galena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Galena — the short answer
Galena, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 5a is Galena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Galena's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Galena
Each reading below is measured for Galena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGalena runs about 190 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGalena sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Galena is in
Galena sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Galena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jo Daviess County.
What Grows in Galena
Every plant below cleared Galena's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Galena?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Galena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Galena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- E Wienen & Sons Const Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Aiken Microwave SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Galena Golf ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- South Golf MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Jo Daviess CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GALENA RIDGE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Eagle-Picher MineMining · 2100 ft
- Waters MineMining · 2400 ft
- LEMFCO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- KRAFT GENERAL FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- Kraft General Foods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Galena'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 Galena.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Galena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Galena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Galena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Galena — Mining (348 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Galena
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 Galena average
Your land is one point inside Galena
Everything above resolves to Galena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Galena Average
Galena Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Galena
- ●One soil character for all of Galena
- ●Frost dates read at Galena's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Galena's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Galena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Galena, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Galena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Galena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Galena average
How we know this about Galena
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 Galena’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 Galena
When does frost risk typically end in Galena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Galena typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Galena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Galena typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Galena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Galena sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Galena?
The federal record around Galena runs heavier than most — 459 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (348), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Galena?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Galena's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Galena'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 Galena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Galena's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,959 acres it covers and 459 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Galena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Galena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 459 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Galena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Galena's boundary and the 2,959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Galena's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Galena's 2,959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jo Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jo Daviess 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 Jo Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Galena's 2,959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Galena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,959 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Galena-wide figureread your own land →