Garrett, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Garrett, 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 Garrett 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 Garrett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garrett — the short answer
Garrett, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 69 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
- 69 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 Garrett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garrett's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garrett
Each reading below is measured for Garrett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarrett 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
MeasuredGarrett 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 Garrett is in
Garrett sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garrett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Garrett
Every plant below cleared Garrett'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 Garrett?
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 Garrett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garrett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Garrett TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Horten & Harder GrainUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- GARRETT TOWNSHIPBrownfields · 500 ft
- Ron MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Kingery Motors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PATIENT EQUIP REBUILD INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ANDERSONS RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SLOAN IMPLEMENTBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Top Flight Grain Coop.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PEPL ATWOOD M&R STATIONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Casey's #1473Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Eagan Bus ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garrett'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 Garrett.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Garrett
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garrett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garrett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garrett, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Garrett. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Garrett
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 Garrett average
Your land is one point inside Garrett
Everything above resolves to Garrett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 69 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 Garrett Average
Garrett Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Garrett
- ●One soil character for all of Garrett
- ●Frost dates read at Garrett's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garrett's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garrett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garrett, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garrett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garrett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garrett average
How we know this about Garrett
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 Garrett’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 Garrett
When does frost risk typically end in Garrett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garrett 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 Garrett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garrett 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 Garrett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garrett 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 Garrett?
The federal record around Garrett shows 135 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Garrett?
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 Garrett's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garrett'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 Garrett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Garrett's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 69 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garrett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garrett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garrett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garrett's boundary and the 69 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 Garrett's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garrett's 69 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garrett's 69 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garrett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 69 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 Garrett-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGarrett sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.