Moweaqua, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Moweaqua, 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 Moweaqua 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 Moweaqua — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moweaqua — the short answer
Moweaqua, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- 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 6a is Moweaqua's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moweaqua's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moweaqua
Each reading below is measured for Moweaqua itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoweaqua 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
MeasuredMoweaqua 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 Moweaqua is in
Moweaqua sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moweaqua's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shelby County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Moweaqua
Every plant below cleared Moweaqua'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 Moweaqua?
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 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 Oct 31 — 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 Moweaqua
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moweaqua. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOWEAQUA PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 500 ft
- Smick John P & Berna AUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Moweaqua Amoco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Callison Ford SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Moweaqua GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Moweaqua ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Hemer Fertilizer Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 12178Brownfields · 2000 ft
- South Central FS, Inc., MoweaquaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Central A & M CUSD 21Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Ruot Contractors, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Moweaqua TownshipsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moweaqua'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 Moweaqua.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Moweaqua
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moweaqua
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moweaqua
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moweaqua, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Moweaqua. 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 Moweaqua
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 Moweaqua average
Your land is one point inside Moweaqua
Everything above resolves to Moweaqua 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 Moweaqua Average
Moweaqua Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Moweaqua
- ●One soil character for all of Moweaqua
- ●Frost dates read at Moweaqua's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moweaqua's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moweaqua
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moweaqua, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moweaqua averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moweaqua — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moweaqua average
How we know this about Moweaqua
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 Moweaqua’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 Moweaqua
When does frost risk typically end in Moweaqua?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moweaqua 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 Moweaqua?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moweaqua typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moweaqua?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moweaqua sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 17, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moweaqua?
The federal record around Moweaqua shows 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Moweaqua?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moweaqua's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moweaqua'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 Moweaqua’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moweaqua's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,313 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moweaqua's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moweaqua's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 31 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moweaqua, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moweaqua's boundary and the 1,313 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Moweaqua sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moweaqua's 1,313 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moweaqua's 1,313 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moweaqua you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,313 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Moweaqua-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMoweaqua sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides