Ladd, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ladd, 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 Ladd 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 Ladd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ladd — the short answer
Ladd, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 773 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 773 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 5b is Ladd's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ladd's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ladd
Each reading below is measured for Ladd itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLadd runs about 204 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
MeasuredLadd sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Ladd is in
Ladd sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ladd's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bureau County.
What Grows in Ladd
Every plant below cleared Ladd's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ladd?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. 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 Ladd
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ladd. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ladd Comm Cons School 94Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- E J Cattani & Son IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Bureau Service CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- James E Hampson ApartmentsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- John M. Ziel (Ziel's Ser)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Knauf Impl CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Casey's General Store #1836Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LADD CONSTRUCTION COBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Ladd Construction CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PARKER HANNIFINBrownfields · 2100 ft
- PARKER HANNIFINToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Illinois Dept. of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ladd'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 Ladd.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ladd
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ladd
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ladd, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ladd — Superfund (14 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ladd
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 Ladd average
Your land is one point inside Ladd
Everything above resolves to Ladd as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 773 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 Ladd Average
Ladd Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ladd
- ●One soil character for all of Ladd
- ●Frost dates read at Ladd's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ladd's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ladd
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ladd, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ladd averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ladd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ladd average
How we know this about Ladd
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 Ladd’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 Ladd
When does frost risk typically end in Ladd?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ladd typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Ladd?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ladd 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ladd?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ladd sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 15, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ladd?
The federal record around Ladd runs heavier than most — 367 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (192), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ladd?
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 Ladd's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ladd'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 Ladd’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ladd's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 773 acres it covers and 367 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ladd's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ladd's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 29 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 367 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ladd, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ladd's boundary and the 773 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ladd's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ladd's 773 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bureau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bureau 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 Bureau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ladd's 773 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ladd you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 773 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 Ladd-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLadd sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides