Hamlet, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hamlet, 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 Hamlet 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 Hamlet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hamlet — the short answer
Hamlet, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 285 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 285 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 Hamlet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hamlet's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hamlet
Each reading below is measured for Hamlet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHamlet runs about 199 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
MeasuredHamlet 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 Hamlet is in
Hamlet sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hamlet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Hamlet
Every plant below cleared Hamlet's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hamlet?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Hamlet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hamlet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IMAC HOG FARMCAFO · 0.9 mi
- HAMPTON FARMSCAFO · 2.8 mi
- Mzv VortacUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Reynolds Ser CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MILLER AUTOBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Casey's General Store #2382Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LC FAMILY FARMSCAFO · 3.8 mi
- Mer-Roc Fs Reynolds PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Martin DavidUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- CARSON HANK FARMCAFO · 5.0 mi
- SHANE HANSEN - ALEDOCAFO · 5.0 mi
- BREIBY FARMCAFO · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hamlet'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 Hamlet.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Hamlet
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hamlet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hamlet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hamlet, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hamlet — CAFO (12 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hamlet
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 Hamlet average
Your land is one point inside Hamlet
Everything above resolves to Hamlet as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 285 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 Hamlet Average
Hamlet Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hamlet
- ●One soil character for all of Hamlet
- ●Frost dates read at Hamlet's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hamlet's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hamlet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hamlet, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hamlet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hamlet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hamlet average
How we know this about Hamlet
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 Hamlet’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 Hamlet
When does frost risk typically end in Hamlet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hamlet typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Hamlet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hamlet 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hamlet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hamlet sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 12, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hamlet?
The federal record around Hamlet is a meaningful one — 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest CAFO record about 0.9 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 Hamlet?
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 Hamlet's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hamlet'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 Hamlet’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hamlet's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 285 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hamlet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hamlet's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 26 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hamlet, the closest CAFO record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hamlet's boundary and the 285 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hamlet's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hamlet's 285 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hamlet's 285 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hamlet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 285 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.9 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 Hamlet-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHamlet sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides