Latham, 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 Latham, 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 Latham 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 Latham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Latham — the short answer
Latham, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 175 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- 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
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 175 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 Latham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Latham's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Latham
Each reading below is measured for Latham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLatham runs about 213 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
MeasuredLatham 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 Latham is in
Latham sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Latham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Latham
Every plant below cleared Latham's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Latham?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (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 Latham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Latham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Farmers Grain Co Of LathamUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Laenna Road DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Kathy Bellemey propertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- COMED RP2 LATHAM MICROWAVE RELAYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Concrete ContractorUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Lorett Auction CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- CROWN CORK & SEAL CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
- Warrensburg Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Kaiser Agricultural ChemicalsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- DIESEL PUMP INCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- Georges 66Underground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- ChestnutUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Latham'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 Latham.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Latham
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Latham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Latham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Latham, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Latham. 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 Latham
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 Latham average
Your land is one point inside Latham
Everything above resolves to Latham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 175 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 Latham Average
Latham Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Latham
- ●One soil character for all of Latham
- ●Frost dates read at Latham's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Latham's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Latham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Latham, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Latham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Latham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Latham average
How we know this about Latham
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 Latham’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 Latham
When does frost risk typically end in Latham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Latham typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Latham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Latham 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Latham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Latham sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 18, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Latham?
The federal record around Latham shows 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Latham?
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 Latham's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Latham'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 Latham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Latham's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 175 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Latham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Latham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 1 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Latham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Latham's boundary and the 175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Latham'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 Latham's 175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan 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 Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Latham's 175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Latham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 175 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 Latham-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLatham sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides