Godfrey, 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 Godfrey, 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 Godfrey 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 Godfrey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Godfrey — the short answer
Godfrey, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 22K 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 Godfrey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Godfrey's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Godfrey
Each reading below is measured for Godfrey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGodfrey runs about 234 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
MeasuredGodfrey 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 Godfrey is in
Godfrey sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Godfrey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Godfrey
Every plant below cleared Godfrey's own zone 6b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Godfrey?
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 13 — 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.
Documented around Godfrey
Survey cells within 31 miles of Godfrey checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 222 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Godfrey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Godfrey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Camp Warren LevisUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BRIGHTONPFAS · 1.2 mi
- Eppel's PantryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Valhalla Memorial Park IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Godfrey Fire Dept Sta #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Casey's General Store #2249Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Georgewitz Contracting CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Godfrey ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CARZ & TRUX BODY & PAINTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Lewis & Clark Community CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LEWIS & CLARK COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Tolles Realty CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Godfrey'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 Godfrey.
Total Sites
455
within ~10 miles of Godfrey
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Godfrey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Godfrey
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 Godfrey
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 Godfrey average
Your land is one point inside Godfrey
Everything above resolves to Godfrey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Godfrey Average
Godfrey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Godfrey
- ●One soil character for all of Godfrey
- ●Frost dates read at Godfrey's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Godfrey's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Godfrey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Godfrey, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Godfrey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Godfrey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Godfrey average
How we know this about Godfrey
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 Godfrey’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 Godfrey
When does frost risk typically end in Godfrey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Godfrey 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 Godfrey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Godfrey typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Godfrey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Godfrey sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 30, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Godfrey?
The federal record around Godfrey is a meaningful one — 455 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (279), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Godfrey?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Godfrey's scale — its 6b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Godfrey'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 Godfrey’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Godfrey's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,013 acres it covers and 455 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Godfrey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Godfrey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 13 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 455 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Godfrey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Godfrey's boundary and the 22,013 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Godfrey's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Godfrey 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 Godfrey's 22,013 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Godfrey's 22,013 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Godfrey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,013 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Godfrey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGodfrey sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides