Iola, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Iola, 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 Iola 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 Iola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Iola — the short answer
Iola, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 617 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 617 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 Iola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Iola's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Iola
Each reading below is measured for Iola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIola runs about 219 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
MeasuredIola 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 Iola is in
Iola sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Iola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Iola
Every plant below cleared Iola's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Iola?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Iola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Iola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North Clay Cusd 25Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- BAILEY FAMILY FARMBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- Rushco ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Fas Mart #559Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Effingham EquityUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Vigoro Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Clay County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- Kens Sunoco SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 14149Brownfields · 7.7 mi
- J B Oil Services, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Effingham-Clay Service CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Zink Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Iola'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 Iola.
Total Sites
29
within ~10 miles of Iola
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Iola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Iola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Iola, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Iola. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Iola
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 Iola average
Your land is one point inside Iola
Everything above resolves to Iola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 617 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 Iola Average
Iola Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Iola
- ●One soil character for all of Iola
- ●Frost dates read at Iola's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Iola's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Iola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Iola, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Iola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Iola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Iola average
How we know this about Iola
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 Iola’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 Iola
When does frost risk typically end in Iola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Iola typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Iola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Iola typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Iola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Iola sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Iola?
The federal record around Iola is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.3 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 Iola?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Iola's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Iola'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 Iola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Iola's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 617 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Iola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Iola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Iola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Iola's boundary and the 617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Iola'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 Iola's 617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Iola's 617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Iola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 617 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.3 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 Iola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisIola sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides