Lawrenceville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lawrenceville, 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 Lawrenceville 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 Lawrenceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lawrenceville — the short answer
Lawrenceville, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6b is Lawrenceville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawrenceville's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lawrenceville
Each reading below is measured for Lawrenceville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLawrenceville runs about 220 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
MeasuredLawrenceville 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 Lawrenceville is in
Lawrenceville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lawrenceville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in Lawrenceville
Every plant below cleared Lawrenceville's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lawrenceville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
Documented around Lawrenceville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lawrenceville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 148 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lawrenceville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pargins Auto Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- GTE Lawrenceville IlUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Leighty BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Croslow's ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Rich-Law Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Idot Lawrenceville Maint YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Lawrence County Housing AuthUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Mach 1 Food ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Crosslow's MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STANDARD, FOSSMEYERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Circle K #1308Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6386Brownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawrenceville'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 Lawrenceville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawrenceville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (124 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lawrenceville
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 Lawrenceville average
Your land is one point inside Lawrenceville
Everything above resolves to Lawrenceville 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 city 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 Lawrenceville Average
Lawrenceville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lawrenceville
- ●One soil character for all of Lawrenceville
- ●Frost dates read at Lawrenceville's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawrenceville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lawrenceville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawrenceville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawrenceville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawrenceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrenceville average
How we know this about Lawrenceville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lawrenceville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Lawrenceville
When does frost risk typically end in Lawrenceville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrenceville typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Lawrenceville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrenceville typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lawrenceville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawrenceville sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawrenceville?
The federal record around Lawrenceville is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lawrenceville?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lawrenceville's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawrenceville'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 Lawrenceville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lawrenceville's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,385 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lawrenceville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lawrenceville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lawrenceville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lawrenceville's boundary and the 1,385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lawrenceville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lawrenceville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lawrenceville's 1,385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lawrenceville's 1,385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lawrenceville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,385 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 Lawrenceville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLawrenceville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides