Livingston, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Livingston, 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 Livingston 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 Livingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Livingston — the short answer
Livingston, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 666 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 666 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 Livingston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Livingston's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Livingston
Each reading below is measured for Livingston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLivingston runs about 223 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
MeasuredLivingston 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 Livingston is in
Livingston sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Livingston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Livingston
Every plant below cleared Livingston's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Livingston?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Livingston
Survey cells within 31 miles of Livingston checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 208 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Livingston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Livingston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B & B Towing & AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Wray Bros MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- AMOCO, MEYERBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Livingston ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Olive TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C&C AUTOBODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ABANDONED DRUMSuperfund · 2.5 mi
- CELTIC AUTO SALES & SERVICEBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SOUTHSIDES RTE 66 AUTOBODY INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- Berg Welding CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Schlechte's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Worden AntiquesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Livingston'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 Livingston.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Livingston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Livingston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Livingston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Livingston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Livingston — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (79 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Livingston
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 Livingston average
Your land is one point inside Livingston
Everything above resolves to Livingston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 666 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 Livingston Average
Livingston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Livingston
- ●One soil character for all of Livingston
- ●Frost dates read at Livingston's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Livingston's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Livingston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Livingston, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Livingston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Livingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Livingston average
How we know this about Livingston
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 Livingston’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 Livingston
When does frost risk typically end in Livingston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Livingston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Livingston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Livingston sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Livingston?
The federal record around Livingston is a meaningful one — 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), 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 Livingston?
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 Livingston's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Livingston'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 Livingston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Livingston's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 666 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Livingston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Livingston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Livingston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Livingston's boundary and the 666 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Livingston's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Livingston 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 Livingston's 666 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Livingston's 666 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Livingston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 666 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 Livingston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLivingston sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides