Kingston Mines, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Kingston Mines, 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 Kingston Mines 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 Kingston Mines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kingston Mines — the short answer
Kingston Mines, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 924 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 924 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 Kingston Mines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingston Mines's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kingston Mines
Each reading below is measured for Kingston Mines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKingston Mines runs about 212 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
MeasuredKingston Mines 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 Kingston Mines is in
Kingston Mines sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kingston Mines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Peoria County.
What Grows in Kingston Mines
Every plant below cleared Kingston Mines's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kingston Mines?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Kingston Mines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kingston Mines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BERGNERS DEPT STORESBrownfields · 950 ft
- BANK ONEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CF Industries, Inc. - Kingston Mines TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CF INDUSTRIES, INC. - KINGSTON MINESTERMINALBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Caterpillar Inc Mapleton OlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- C F Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CF INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CATERPILLAR INC.-MAPLETONToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- CATERPILLAR INC.-MAPLETONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 24N 6W-10.4bNitrate · 1.3 mi
- Lonza IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Sherex Chemical Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingston Mines'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 Kingston Mines.
Total Sites
431
within ~10 miles of Kingston Mines
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kingston Mines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kingston Mines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingston Mines, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kingston Mines — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Kingston Mines
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 Kingston Mines average
Your land is one point inside Kingston Mines
Everything above resolves to Kingston Mines as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 924 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 Kingston Mines Average
Kingston Mines Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kingston Mines
- ●One soil character for all of Kingston Mines
- ●Frost dates read at Kingston Mines's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingston Mines's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kingston Mines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingston Mines, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingston Mines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingston Mines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingston Mines average
How we know this about Kingston Mines
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 Kingston Mines’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 Kingston Mines
When does frost risk typically end in Kingston Mines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingston Mines typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Kingston Mines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kingston Mines typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kingston Mines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingston Mines sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingston Mines?
The federal record around Kingston Mines is a meaningful one — 431 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (228), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Kingston Mines?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kingston Mines's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingston Mines'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 Kingston Mines’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kingston Mines's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 924 acres it covers and 431 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kingston Mines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kingston Mines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 431 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kingston Mines, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kingston Mines's boundary and the 924 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kingston Mines'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 Kingston Mines's 924 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Peoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Peoria 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 Peoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kingston Mines's 924 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kingston Mines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 924 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Kingston Mines-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisKingston Mines sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides