Herrick, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Herrick, 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 Herrick 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 Herrick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Herrick — the short answer
Herrick, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 234 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 234 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 Herrick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Herrick's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Herrick
Each reading below is measured for Herrick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHerrick runs about 211 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
MeasuredHerrick 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 Herrick is in
Herrick sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Herrick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Herrick
Every plant below cleared Herrick's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Herrick?
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 Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Herrick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Herrick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Carlisle MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- former Keller Oil Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Chandler Fast Stop, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 6 miles N of RamseyNitrate · 6.7 mi
- Cowden Country Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Miller Oil Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Francis Evans Lime & Fertilizer ServUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Cowden Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Gerald A Harris Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Township ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- COWDEN VILLAGE OFBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- Miller Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Herrick'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 Herrick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Herrick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Herrick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Herrick, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Herrick. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Herrick
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 Herrick average
Your land is one point inside Herrick
Everything above resolves to Herrick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 234 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 Herrick Average
Herrick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Herrick
- ●One soil character for all of Herrick
- ●Frost dates read at Herrick's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Herrick's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Herrick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Herrick, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Herrick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Herrick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Herrick average
How we know this about Herrick
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 Herrick’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 Herrick
When does frost risk typically end in Herrick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Herrick typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Herrick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Herrick typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Herrick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Herrick sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 15, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Herrick?
The federal record around Herrick is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Herrick?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Herrick's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Herrick'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 Herrick’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Herrick's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 234 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Herrick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Herrick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 29 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Herrick, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Herrick's boundary and the 234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Herrick'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 Herrick's 234 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Herrick's 234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Herrick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 234 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 Herrick-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHerrick sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides