Hidalgo, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hidalgo, 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 Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hidalgo — the short answer
Hidalgo, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 220 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)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 220 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 Hidalgo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hidalgo's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hidalgo
Each reading below is measured for Hidalgo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHidalgo runs about 218 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
MeasuredHidalgo 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 Hidalgo is in
Hidalgo sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hidalgo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in Hidalgo
Every plant below cleared Hidalgo's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hidalgo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Nov 5 — 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 Hidalgo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hidalgo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- David HeathUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- C L H GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Winter Robert RUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Hazel Dell StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- JALAA FIBERGLASSBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- Greenup Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- EVAPCO INCBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- EVAPCO - GREENUP, ILToxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- A & F MATERIAL RECLAIMING, INC.Superfund · 6.2 mi
- Freedom Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- GREENUP RECYCLING AND AUCTION HOUSESuperfund · 6.3 mi
- Sherwood OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hidalgo'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 Hidalgo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hidalgo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hidalgo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hidalgo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hidalgo — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (29 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hidalgo
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 Hidalgo average
Your land is one point inside Hidalgo
Everything above resolves to Hidalgo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 220 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 Hidalgo Average
Hidalgo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hidalgo
- ●One soil character for all of Hidalgo
- ●Frost dates read at Hidalgo's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hidalgo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hidalgo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hidalgo, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hidalgo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hidalgo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hidalgo average
How we know this about Hidalgo
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 Hidalgo’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 Hidalgo
When does frost risk typically end in Hidalgo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hidalgo typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hidalgo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hidalgo sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 22, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hidalgo?
The federal record around Hidalgo is a meaningful one — 43 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.5 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 Hidalgo?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hidalgo's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hidalgo'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 Hidalgo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hidalgo's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 220 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hidalgo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hidalgo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 5 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hidalgo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hidalgo's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hidalgo'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 Hidalgo's 220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hidalgo's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hidalgo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.5 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 Hidalgo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHidalgo sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.