Lake Petersburg, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Petersburg, 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 Lake Petersburg 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 Lake Petersburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Petersburg — the short answer
Lake Petersburg, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Lake Petersburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Petersburg's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Petersburg
Each reading below is measured for Lake Petersburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Petersburg runs about 211 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
MeasuredLake Petersburg 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 Lake Petersburg is in
Lake Petersburg sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Petersburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Menard County.
What Grows in Lake Petersburg
Every plant below cleared Lake Petersburg's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Petersburg?
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 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 Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Lake Petersburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Petersburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Knous AlbertUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- AG TECH SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- New Salem Fast StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Hess Fs SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NIKLES OF PETERSBURG INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Stevens Implement Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Gum DisposalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Menard County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- KNOUS MOTOR COBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Menard Cnty Cemetery Maint DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BELLS VILLAGE MALL CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Knous Motor CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Petersburg'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 Lake Petersburg.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Lake Petersburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Petersburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Petersburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Petersburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Petersburg — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (51 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Petersburg
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 Lake Petersburg average
Your land is one point inside Lake Petersburg
Everything above resolves to Lake Petersburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Lake Petersburg Average
Lake Petersburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake Petersburg
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Petersburg
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Petersburg's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Petersburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Petersburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Petersburg, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Petersburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Petersburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Petersburg average
How we know this about Lake Petersburg
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 Lake Petersburg’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 Lake Petersburg
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Petersburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Petersburg 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 Lake Petersburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Petersburg 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 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Petersburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Petersburg sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Petersburg?
The federal record around Lake Petersburg shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake Petersburg?
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 Lake Petersburg's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Petersburg'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 Lake Petersburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Petersburg's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,156 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Petersburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Petersburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Petersburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Petersburg's boundary and the 1,156 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Petersburg'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 Lake Petersburg's 1,156 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Menard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Menard 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 Menard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Petersburg's 1,156 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Petersburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,156 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lake Petersburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLake Petersburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides