Goodfield, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Goodfield, 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 Goodfield 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 Goodfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goodfield — the short answer
Goodfield, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Goodfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goodfield's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goodfield
Each reading below is measured for Goodfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoodfield runs about 197 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
MeasuredGoodfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Goodfield is in
Goodfield sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goodfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Woodford County.
What Grows in Goodfield
Every plant below cleared Goodfield's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goodfield?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Goodfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goodfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CNH AMERICA LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CNH AMERICA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- CONKLINS DINNER THEATREBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CNH America, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GTE NorthUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Morton Buildings IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MARTIN EQUIPMENT OF ILBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Con AgraUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Cargill Inc Nutrena FeedsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Goodfield 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Freedom Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Glen's StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goodfield'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 Goodfield.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Goodfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goodfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goodfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goodfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Goodfield — CAFO (7 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Goodfield
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 Goodfield average
Your land is one point inside Goodfield
Everything above resolves to Goodfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Goodfield Average
Goodfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Goodfield
- ●One soil character for all of Goodfield
- ●Frost dates read at Goodfield's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goodfield's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goodfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goodfield, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goodfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goodfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goodfield average
How we know this about Goodfield
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 Goodfield’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 Goodfield
When does frost risk typically end in Goodfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goodfield typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Goodfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goodfield typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goodfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goodfield sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 11, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goodfield?
The federal record around Goodfield shows 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles 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 Goodfield?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goodfield's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goodfield'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 Goodfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goodfield's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,078 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goodfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goodfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 25 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goodfield, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goodfield's boundary and the 1,078 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goodfield'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 Goodfield's 1,078 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodford 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 Woodford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goodfield's 1,078 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goodfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,078 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Goodfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGoodfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides