New Bedford, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Bedford, 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 New Bedford 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 New Bedford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Bedford — the short answer
New Bedford, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 99 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 99 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 New Bedford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Bedford's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Bedford
Each reading below is measured for New Bedford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Bedford runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNew Bedford 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 New Bedford is in
New Bedford sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Bedford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bureau County.
What Grows in New Bedford
Every plant below cleared New Bedford's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Bedford?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near New Bedford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Bedford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Manlius Oil Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Cargill Hybrid SeedsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Manlius Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- King VivianUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Manlius School DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Kory Farm Eq Div Of Korhumel IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Manlius Oil Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Storage BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Michlig Agri Ctr IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Wirth DesposalUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Manlius Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- 400 E and 2900 NNitrate · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Bedford'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 New Bedford.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of New Bedford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Bedford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Bedford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Bedford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Bedford — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (52 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in New Bedford
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 New Bedford average
Your land is one point inside New Bedford
Everything above resolves to New Bedford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 99 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 New Bedford Average
New Bedford Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New Bedford
- ●One soil character for all of New Bedford
- ●Frost dates read at New Bedford's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Bedford's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Bedford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Bedford, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Bedford averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Bedford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Bedford average
How we know this about New Bedford
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 New Bedford’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 New Bedford
When does frost risk typically end in New Bedford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Bedford typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in New Bedford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Bedford typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Bedford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Bedford sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Bedford?
The federal record around New Bedford is a meaningful one — 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 New Bedford?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Bedford's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Bedford'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 New Bedford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Bedford's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 99 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Bedford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Bedford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 24 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Bedford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Bedford's boundary and the 99 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Bedford'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 New Bedford's 99 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bureau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bureau 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 Bureau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Bedford's 99 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Bedford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 99 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 New Bedford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNew Bedford sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides