Metcalf, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Metcalf, 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 Metcalf 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 Metcalf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Metcalf — the short answer
Metcalf, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 380 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- 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
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 380 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 6a is Metcalf's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Metcalf's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Metcalf
Each reading below is measured for Metcalf itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMetcalf runs about 212 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
MeasuredMetcalf sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Metcalf is in
Metcalf sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Metcalf's own centroid rather than borrowed from Edgar County.
What Grows in Metcalf
Every plant below cleared Metcalf's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Metcalf?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Metcalf
Survey cells within 31 miles of Metcalf checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 100 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Metcalf
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Metcalf. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Shiloh Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Shiloh School Unit #2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Rodgers ImplementUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Keys MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Radke & Coffey Implement, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Bills Mower ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- P J's ShortstopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Illini FS Chrisman Fuel 24Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Community Unit School Dist. #6Underground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Crisman Farm Ctr IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Casey's General Store #1662Underground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- John Frazees StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Metcalf'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 Metcalf.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Metcalf
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Metcalf, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Metcalf. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Metcalf
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 Metcalf average
Your land is one point inside Metcalf
Everything above resolves to Metcalf as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 380 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 Metcalf Average
Metcalf Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Metcalf
- ●One soil character for all of Metcalf
- ●Frost dates read at Metcalf's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Metcalf's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Metcalf
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Metcalf, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Metcalf averages can't show:
We read public map data around Metcalf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Metcalf average
How we know this about Metcalf
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 Metcalf’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 Metcalf
When does frost risk typically end in Metcalf?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Metcalf typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Metcalf?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Metcalf 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 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Metcalf?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Metcalf sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Metcalf?
The federal record around Metcalf is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Metcalf?
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 Metcalf's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Metcalf'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 Metcalf’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Metcalf's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 380 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Metcalf's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Metcalf's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Metcalf, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Metcalf's boundary and the 380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Metcalf's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Metcalf 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 Metcalf's 380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edgar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edgar 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 Edgar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Metcalf's 380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Metcalf you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 380 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 Metcalf-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMetcalf sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.