Granville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Granville, 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 Granville 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 Granville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Granville — the short answer
Granville, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 836 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 836 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 Granville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Granville's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Granville
Each reading below is measured for Granville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGranville runs about 202 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
MeasuredGranville 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 Granville is in
Granville sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Granville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Putnam County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Granville
Every plant below cleared Granville's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Granville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Granville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Granville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fiedler KennethUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Hopkins BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Coye SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Putnam County High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Granville Motor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Granville Minit Mart #620Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Travelers GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Casey's General Store #1880Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 14428Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- FILE AUTO REPAIR CTRBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MENNIE MACHINE COBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Moew's Seed CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Granville'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 Granville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Granville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Granville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Granville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Granville — Superfund (15 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Granville
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 Granville average
Your land is one point inside Granville
Everything above resolves to Granville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 836 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 Granville Average
Granville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Granville
- ●One soil character for all of Granville
- ●Frost dates read at Granville's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Granville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Granville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Granville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Granville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Granville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Granville average
How we know this about Granville
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 Granville’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 Granville
When does frost risk typically end in Granville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Granville typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Granville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Granville typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Granville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Granville sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Granville?
The federal record around Granville runs heavier than most — 374 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (207), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Granville?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Granville's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Granville'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 Granville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Granville's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 836 acres it covers and 374 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Granville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Granville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 374 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Granville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Granville's boundary and the 836 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Granville 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 Granville's 836 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Granville's 836 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Granville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 836 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Granville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGranville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides