Hume, 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.
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 Hume, 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 Hume 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 Hume — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hume — the short answer
Hume, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 362 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 362 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 Hume's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hume's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hume
Each reading below is measured for Hume itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHume runs about 210 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
MeasuredHume 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 Hume is in
Hume sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hume's own centroid rather than borrowed from Edgar County.
What Grows in Hume
Every plant below cleared Hume's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hume?
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 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 31 — 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 Hume
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hume checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 102 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hume
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hume. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Shiloh School Unit #2Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Rodgers ImplementUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Keys MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Shiloh Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Allerton Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Newman TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- Liffick TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- PEPL NEWMAN M&RBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- Hoffman Seeds IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Tabor Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- Former D&S Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Marrackech Imports, Inc. d/b/a C & C's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hume'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 Hume.
Total Sites
25
within ~10 miles of Hume
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hume
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hume
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hume, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Hume. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hume
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 Hume average
Your land is one point inside Hume
Everything above resolves to Hume as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 362 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 Hume Average
Hume Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hume
- ●One soil character for all of Hume
- ●Frost dates read at Hume's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hume's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hume
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hume, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hume averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hume — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hume average
How we know this about Hume
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 Hume’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 Hume
When does frost risk typically end in Hume?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hume 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 Hume?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hume typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hume?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hume sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 17, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hume?
The federal record around Hume is light — 25 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Hume?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hume's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hume'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 Hume’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hume's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 362 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hume's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hume's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 31 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hume, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hume's boundary and the 362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hume's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hume 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 Hume's 362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edgar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edgar 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 Edgar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hume's 362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hume you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 362 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hume-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHume sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.