Hamel, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Hamel, 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 Hamel 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 Hamel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hamel — the short answer
Hamel, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 762 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 762 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 Hamel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hamel's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hamel
Each reading below is measured for Hamel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHamel runs about 227 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
MeasuredHamel 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 Hamel is in
Hamel sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hamel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Hamel
Every plant below cleared Hamel's own zone 6b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hamel?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Hamel
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hamel checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 215 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hamel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hamel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Innkeeper Motel Restr & Ser StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Erb Equipment Co At HamelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Tri-County Petroleum, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CC Food Mart HamelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Chuck's Hamel 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Suhre Gas & Appl Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Hamel Well DrillingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JEMENI CUTTING TOOLSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SIEVERS EQUIP COBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Hansen Donald EUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Hamel Coop Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Cassens Transport CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hamel'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 Hamel.
Total Sites
169
within ~10 miles of Hamel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hamel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hamel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hamel, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hamel — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (115 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hamel
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 Hamel average
Your land is one point inside Hamel
Everything above resolves to Hamel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 762 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 Hamel Average
Hamel Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hamel
- ●One soil character for all of Hamel
- ●Frost dates read at Hamel's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hamel's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hamel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hamel, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hamel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hamel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hamel average
How we know this about Hamel
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 Hamel’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 Hamel
When does frost risk typically end in Hamel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hamel typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Hamel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hamel typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hamel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hamel sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hamel?
The federal record around Hamel is a meaningful one — 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hamel?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hamel's scale — its 6b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hamel'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 Hamel’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hamel's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 762 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hamel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hamel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hamel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hamel's boundary and the 762 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hamel's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hamel 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 Hamel's 762 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 Hamel's 762 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hamel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 762 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 Hamel-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHamel sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides