Marine, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marine, 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 Marine 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 Marine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marine — the short answer
Marine, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 451 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 451 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 Marine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marine's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marine
Each reading below is measured for Marine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarine runs about 227 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
MeasuredMarine 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 Marine is in
Marine sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Marine
Every plant below cleared Marine's own zone 6b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marine?
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 Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Marine
Survey cells within 31 miles of Marine checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 220 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Stop N Go Mart, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Heuserwilbur C & JacquelynUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Marine WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Tracy Trucking CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Estate of Gerald E. HessUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Standard Oil Div Amoco Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Mike Maedge TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 5N6W-32.4a1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- K AND L BOHNENSTIEHL FARMSCAFO · 3.2 mi
- TRI FORD MERCURY INCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- St. Jacob Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- TRI AUTO BODYBrownfields · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marine'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 Marine.
Total Sites
273
within ~10 miles of Marine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Marine — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (170 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Marine
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 Marine average
Your land is one point inside Marine
Everything above resolves to Marine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 451 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 Marine Average
Marine Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Marine
- ●One soil character for all of Marine
- ●Frost dates read at Marine's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marine's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marine, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marine average
How we know this about Marine
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 Marine’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 Marine
When does frost risk typically end in Marine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marine typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Marine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marine typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marine sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marine?
The federal record around Marine is a meaningful one — 273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), 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 Marine?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marine's scale — its 6b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marine'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 Marine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marine's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 451 acres it covers and 273 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 273 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marine's boundary and the 451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marine's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Marine 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 Marine's 451 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 Marine's 451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 451 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 Marine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMarine sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.