Girard, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Girard, 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 Girard 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 Girard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Girard — the short answer
Girard, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 598 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 598 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 Girard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Girard's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Girard
Each reading below is measured for Girard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGirard runs about 217 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
MeasuredGirard 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 Girard is in
Girard sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Girard's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Macoupin County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Girard
Every plant below cleared Girard's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Girard?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Girard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Girard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Robinson Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GIRARD AUTO SALES INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- Girard Shell Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Freedom Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- South Otter Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Girard Home Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Girard TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Macoupin Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Jenkins HowardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- School Dist Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 9023Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- COWDEN AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Girard'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 Girard.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Girard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Girard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Girard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Girard
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 Girard average
Your land is one point inside Girard
Everything above resolves to Girard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 598 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 Girard Average
Girard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Girard
- ●One soil character for all of Girard
- ●Frost dates read at Girard's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Girard's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Girard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Girard, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Girard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Girard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Girard average
How we know this about Girard
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 Girard’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 Girard
When does frost risk typically end in Girard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Girard typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Girard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Girard typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Girard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Girard sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 20, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Girard?
The federal record around Girard is a meaningful one — 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), 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 Girard?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Girard's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Girard'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 Girard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Girard's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 598 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Girard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Girard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Girard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Girard's boundary and the 598 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Girard sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Girard's 598 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Macoupin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Macoupin 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 Macoupin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Girard's 598 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Girard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 598 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 Girard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGirard sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides