Goofy Ridge, 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 Goofy Ridge, 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 Goofy Ridge 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 Goofy Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goofy Ridge — the short answer
Goofy Ridge, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 863 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 863 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 Goofy Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goofy Ridge's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goofy Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Goofy Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoofy Ridge runs about 203 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
MeasuredGoofy Ridge 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 Goofy Ridge is in
Goofy Ridge sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goofy Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Goofy Ridge
Every plant below cleared Goofy Ridge's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goofy Ridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Goofy Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goofy Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASON STATE NURSERYBrownfields · 700 ft
- Mason State Nursery IdocUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 2500 N and 2400 ENitrate · 2.6 mi
- Topeka Rd and 2000 NNitrate · 3.2 mi
- Jake Wolf Memorial Fish HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 2450 E and 2000 NNitrate · 3.8 mi
- 22N7W-29.1d1 (DP-1)Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 22N7W-29.1d2 (SH-1)Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- AMEREN - DUCK CREEK POWER STATIONBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- AMEREN - DUCK CREEK POWER STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 5.4 mi
- 2300 N and 2750 ENitrate · 5.4 mi
- 900 N and 300 ENitrate · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goofy Ridge'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 Goofy Ridge.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Goofy Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goofy Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goofy Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goofy Ridge, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Goofy Ridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Goofy Ridge
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 Goofy Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Goofy Ridge
Everything above resolves to Goofy Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 863 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 Goofy Ridge Average
Goofy Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Goofy Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Goofy Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Goofy Ridge's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goofy Ridge's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goofy Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goofy Ridge, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goofy Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goofy Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goofy Ridge average
How we know this about Goofy Ridge
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 Goofy Ridge’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 Goofy Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Goofy Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goofy Ridge typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Goofy Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goofy Ridge typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goofy Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goofy Ridge sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goofy Ridge?
The federal record around Goofy Ridge is a meaningful one — 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Brownfields 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 Goofy Ridge?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goofy Ridge's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goofy Ridge'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 Goofy Ridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goofy Ridge's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 863 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goofy Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goofy Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 26 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goofy Ridge, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goofy Ridge's boundary and the 863 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goofy Ridge'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 Goofy Ridge's 863 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goofy Ridge's 863 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goofy Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 863 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Goofy Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGoofy Ridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides