Nason, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nason, 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 Nason 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 Nason — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nason — the short answer
Nason, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 583 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 583 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 Nason's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nason's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nason
Each reading below is measured for Nason itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNason runs about 228 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
MeasuredNason 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 Nason is in
Nason sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nason's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Nason
Every plant below cleared Nason's own zone 6b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nason?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Nason
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nason. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rend Lake State Fish/WildlifeUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Rowe's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- FREEMAN UNITED COAL MINING COBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- Love's Travel Stop #318Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Lakeview Service Corp.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Michel Fertilizer CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Rend Lake College Dist 521Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Lang FurnitureUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Big Muddy River CorrectionalUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Jones Motor SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Village of BonnieUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Farmers SprayingUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nason'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 Nason.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Nason
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nason
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nason
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nason, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 124 sites within ~10 miles of Nason. 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 Nason
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 Nason average
Your land is one point inside Nason
Everything above resolves to Nason as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 583 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 Nason Average
Nason Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Nason
- ●One soil character for all of Nason
- ●Frost dates read at Nason's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nason's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nason
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nason, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nason averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nason — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nason average
How we know this about Nason
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 Nason’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 Nason
When does frost risk typically end in Nason?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nason typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Nason?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nason typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nason?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nason sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 25, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nason?
The federal record around Nason is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nason?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nason's scale — its 6b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nason'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 Nason’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nason's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 583 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nason's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nason's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 8 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nason, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nason's boundary and the 583 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nason'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 Nason's 583 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nason's 583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nason you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 583 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 Nason-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNason sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides