Louisville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Louisville, 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 Louisville 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 Louisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Louisville — the short answer
Louisville, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 530 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 530 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 Louisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Louisville's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Louisville
Each reading below is measured for Louisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLouisville 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
MeasuredLouisville 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 Louisville is in
Louisville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Louisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Louisville
Every plant below cleared Louisville'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 Louisville?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Louisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Louisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Caseys General Store #1666Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LOUISVILLE COLLISION CTRBrownfields · 500 ft
- Countryside ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Zink Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Louisville Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Effingham-Clay Service CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 14149Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Louisville WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Kens Sunoco SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Clay County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- North Clay Cusd 25Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER 506Brownfields · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Louisville'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 Louisville.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Louisville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Louisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Louisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Louisville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Louisville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Louisville
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 Louisville average
Your land is one point inside Louisville
Everything above resolves to Louisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 530 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 Louisville Average
Louisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Louisville
- ●One soil character for all of Louisville
- ●Frost dates read at Louisville's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Louisville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Louisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Louisville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Louisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Louisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Louisville average
How we know this about Louisville
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 Louisville’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 Louisville
When does frost risk typically end in Louisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Louisville typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Louisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Louisville typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Louisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Louisville sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Louisville?
The federal record around Louisville shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), 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 Louisville?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Louisville's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Louisville'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 Louisville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Louisville's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 530 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Louisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Louisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Louisville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Louisville's boundary and the 530 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 Louisville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Louisville's 530 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Louisville's 530 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Louisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 530 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 Louisville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLouisville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides