Mount Sterling, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Sterling, 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 Mount Sterling 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 Mount Sterling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Sterling — the short answer
Mount Sterling, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 765 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 765 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 Mount Sterling's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Sterling's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Sterling
Each reading below is measured for Mount Sterling itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Sterling runs about 215 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
MeasuredMount Sterling 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 Mount Sterling is in
Mount Sterling sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Sterling's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Mount Sterling
Every plant below cleared Mount Sterling's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Sterling?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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. 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 Mount Sterling
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Sterling. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Northeast Waste Water TreatmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- DOT FOODS INC., (MT. STERLING)Brownfields · 500 ft
- UnknownUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Ayerco Convenience Center #12Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Dixon Auto BodyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MOWEN AUTOBODY LLCBrownfields · 650 ft
- KROPP SALES & SERVICEBrownfields · 800 ft
- First Federal BankUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MT STERLING RADIATOR & WELDINGBrownfields · 800 ft
- Kropp Standard SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Casey's General Store #1479Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Wort Shell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Sterling'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 Mount Sterling.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Sterling
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Sterling
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Sterling, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Mount Sterling. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Mount Sterling
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 Mount Sterling average
Your land is one point inside Mount Sterling
Everything above resolves to Mount Sterling as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 765 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 Mount Sterling Average
Mount Sterling Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mount Sterling
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Sterling
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Sterling's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Sterling's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Sterling
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Sterling, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Sterling averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Sterling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Sterling average
How we know this about Mount Sterling
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 Mount Sterling’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 Mount Sterling
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Sterling?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Sterling typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Mount Sterling?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Sterling 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 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Sterling?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Sterling sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 19, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Sterling?
The federal record around Mount Sterling is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mount Sterling?
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 Mount Sterling's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Sterling'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 Mount Sterling’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Sterling's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 765 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Sterling's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Sterling's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Sterling, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Sterling's boundary and the 765 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Sterling'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 Mount Sterling's 765 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Sterling's 765 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Sterling you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 765 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 Mount Sterling-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMount Sterling sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides