Metamora, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Metamora, 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 Metamora 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 Metamora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Metamora — the short answer
Metamora, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Metamora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Metamora's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Metamora
Each reading below is measured for Metamora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMetamora runs about 205 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
MeasuredMetamora sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Metamora is in
Metamora sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Metamora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Woodford County.
What Grows in Metamora
Every plant below cleared Metamora's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Metamora?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Metamora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Metamora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Metamora Township H.S. District #122Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- North Sewage Lift StationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NORCO FUELS INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Metamora Garage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 4677Brownfields · 2000 ft
- ONE OF A KIND CUSTOM WOODWORKIBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 11205Brownfields · 2100 ft
- Matson Auto SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Ulrich's StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Casey's General Store #3500Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Midwest Health Renewal CneterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MCBRIDE & SHOFF INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Metamora'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 Metamora.
Total Sites
232
within ~10 miles of Metamora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Metamora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Metamora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Metamora, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Metamora — CAFO (7 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Metamora
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 Metamora average
Your land is one point inside Metamora
Everything above resolves to Metamora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Metamora Average
Metamora Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Metamora
- ●One soil character for all of Metamora
- ●Frost dates read at Metamora's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Metamora's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Metamora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Metamora, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Metamora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Metamora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Metamora average
How we know this about Metamora
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 Metamora’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 Metamora
When does frost risk typically end in Metamora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Metamora typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Metamora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Metamora typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Metamora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Metamora sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 16, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Metamora?
The federal record around Metamora is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (147), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Metamora?
From about Sep 30 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Metamora's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Metamora'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 Metamora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Metamora's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,459 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Metamora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Metamora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 30 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Metamora, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Metamora's boundary and the 1,459 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Metamora'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 Metamora's 1,459 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodford 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 Woodford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Metamora's 1,459 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Metamora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,459 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Metamora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMetamora sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides