Germantown, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Germantown, 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 Germantown 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 Germantown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Germantown — the short answer
Germantown, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 653 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 653 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 6b is Germantown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Germantown's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Germantown
Each reading below is measured for Germantown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGermantown runs about 226 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
MeasuredGermantown sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Germantown is in
Germantown sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Germantown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Germantown
Every plant below cleared Germantown's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Germantown?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Germantown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Germantown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Germantown Egg CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Lakenburges Motor CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Jansen Chevrolet Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Germantown Egg CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Becker's Convenience MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BECKERS CONVENIENCE MARTBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Becker's ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 11655Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- GERMANTOWN EGG FARMCAFO · 1.0 mi
- Southern Farms Country EggsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BEER PORK FARMCAFO · 1.5 mi
- BOOK PORK FARMSCAFO · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Germantown'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 Germantown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Germantown, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Germantown. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Germantown
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 Germantown average
Your land is one point inside Germantown
Everything above resolves to Germantown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 653 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 Germantown Average
Germantown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Germantown
- ●One soil character for all of Germantown
- ●Frost dates read at Germantown's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Germantown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Germantown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Germantown, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Germantown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Germantown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Germantown average
How we know this about Germantown
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 Germantown’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 Germantown
When does frost risk typically end in Germantown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Germantown typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Germantown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Germantown typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Germantown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Germantown sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 23, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Germantown?
The federal record around Germantown is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Germantown?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Germantown's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Germantown'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 Germantown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Germantown's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 653 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Germantown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Germantown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 6 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Germantown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Germantown's boundary and the 653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Germantown'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 Germantown's 653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Germantown's 653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Germantown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 653 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Germantown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGermantown sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides