Green Valley, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Green Valley, 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 Green Valley 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 Green Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Green Valley — the short answer
Green Valley, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 193 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 193 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 Green Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Green Valley's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Green Valley
Each reading below is measured for Green Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreen Valley runs about 209 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
MeasuredGreen Valley 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 Green Valley is in
Green Valley sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Green Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tazewell County.
What Grows in Green Valley
Every plant below cleared Green Valley's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Green Valley?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Green Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Green Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tazewell Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Midwest Central Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Casey's General Store #1618Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- AG-LAND FS, INC. - GREEN VALLEYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 600 N and 3500 ENitrate · 1.0 mi
- 1.2 miles SW of Green ValleyNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 400 N and 1400 ENitrate · 2.2 mi
- 2.5 miles S of Green ValleyNitrate · 2.6 mi
- MICHELS PIPELINEBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- Haycock Soil Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Tazewell Servcie CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- No Facility Name ProvidedUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Green Valley'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 Green Valley.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Green Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Green Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Green Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Green Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Green Valley — CAFO (4 sites) and Superfund (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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Green Valley
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 Green Valley average
Your land is one point inside Green Valley
Everything above resolves to Green Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 193 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 Green Valley Average
Green Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Green Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Green Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Green Valley's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Green Valley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Green Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Green Valley, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Green Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Green Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Green Valley average
How we know this about Green Valley
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 Green Valley’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 Green Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Green Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Green Valley typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Green Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Green Valley typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Green Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Green Valley sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 16, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Green Valley?
The federal record around Green Valley is a meaningful one — 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), 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 Green Valley?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Green Valley's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Green Valley'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 Green Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Green Valley's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 193 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Green Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Green Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 30 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Green Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Green Valley's boundary and the 193 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Green Valley'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 Green Valley's 193 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Green Valley's 193 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Green Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 193 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 Green Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisGreen Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides