Mattoon, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mattoon, 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 Mattoon 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 Mattoon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mattoon — the short answer
Mattoon, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Mattoon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mattoon's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mattoon
Each reading below is measured for Mattoon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMattoon runs about 214 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
MeasuredMattoon 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 Mattoon is in
Mattoon sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mattoon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coles County.
What Grows in Mattoon
Every plant below cleared Mattoon's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mattoon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Mattoon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mattoon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Clark Store #1768Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Huck's #175Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Greenfield and Greenfield Gold Dust, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Casey's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ASPEN DENTALBrownfields · 1700 ft
- BLAW-KNOX CONSTRUCTION COToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- ONE-HOUR CUSTOM CAREBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Lambo's Amoco IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 8661Brownfields · 2600 ft
- Fireston Store 29Y6Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Marathon Unit #1882Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mattoon'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 Mattoon.
Total Sites
214
within ~10 miles of Mattoon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mattoon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mattoon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mattoon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Mattoon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mattoon
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 Mattoon average
Your land is one point inside Mattoon
Everything above resolves to Mattoon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Mattoon Average
Mattoon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mattoon
- ●One soil character for all of Mattoon
- ●Frost dates read at Mattoon's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mattoon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mattoon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mattoon, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mattoon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mattoon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mattoon average
How we know this about Mattoon
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 Mattoon’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 Mattoon
When does frost risk typically end in Mattoon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mattoon typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Mattoon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mattoon typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mattoon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mattoon sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mattoon?
The federal record around Mattoon is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Mattoon?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mattoon's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mattoon'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 Mattoon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mattoon's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,601 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mattoon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mattoon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mattoon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mattoon's boundary and the 6,601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mattoon's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mattoon's 6,601 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coles 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 Coles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mattoon's 6,601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mattoon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,601 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mattoon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMattoon sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides