Macedonia, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Macedonia, 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 Macedonia 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 Macedonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Macedonia — the short answer
Macedonia, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 174 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 174 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 Macedonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macedonia's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Macedonia
Each reading below is measured for Macedonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMacedonia runs about 222 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
MeasuredMacedonia 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 Macedonia is in
Macedonia sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Macedonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Macedonia
Every plant below cleared Macedonia's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Macedonia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 5 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Macedonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Macedonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Vise Brothers ExcavatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Southern FSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- JENNCHEM MIDWEST, LLCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- SUGAR CAMP ENERGY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- C & W Country Store, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- OAK HILL GENETICSCAFO · 5.3 mi
- DEERFIELD ACRESCAFO · 6.2 mi
- PRAIRIE ACRE FARMCAFO · 6.3 mi
- GEHMAN FARMSCAFO · 6.7 mi
- NORTH KEGLEY DERAILMENT SITEBrownfields · 8.3 mi
- Wolf Ser StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Macedonia'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 Macedonia.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Macedonia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Macedonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Macedonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Macedonia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Macedonia — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (43 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Macedonia
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 Macedonia average
Your land is one point inside Macedonia
Everything above resolves to Macedonia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 174 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 Macedonia Average
Macedonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Macedonia
- ●One soil character for all of Macedonia
- ●Frost dates read at Macedonia's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macedonia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Macedonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macedonia, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macedonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macedonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macedonia average
How we know this about Macedonia
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 Macedonia’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 Macedonia
When does frost risk typically end in Macedonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macedonia 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 Macedonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Macedonia 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Macedonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macedonia sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macedonia?
The federal record around Macedonia shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Macedonia?
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 Macedonia's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macedonia'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 Macedonia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Macedonia's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 174 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macedonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macedonia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 5 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Macedonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Macedonia's boundary and the 174 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Macedonia'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 Macedonia's 174 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Macedonia's 174 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Macedonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 174 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Macedonia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMacedonia sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides