New Boston, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Boston, 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 Boston 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 Boston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Boston — the short answer
New Boston, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 602 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- 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
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 602 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 Boston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Boston's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Boston
Each reading below is measured for New Boston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Boston runs about 214 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
MeasuredNew Boston 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 Boston is in
New Boston sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Boston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in New Boston
Every plant below cleared New Boston's own zone 5b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Boston?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 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 New Boston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Boston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mcatee ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Jims Tune UpUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CARGILLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Eliza One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Township ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bay CUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lock & Dam 17Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 074N01W31DCB 12527 1960US Army Corps of EngineersNitrate · 0.9 mi
- US ARMY CORPS ENG LOCK DAM 17Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- 073N02W11CABD 18353 1966Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- MSF FARMS - NEW BOSTONCAFO · 4.2 mi
- TRI OAK FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Boston'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 Boston.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of New Boston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Boston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Boston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Boston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Boston — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (46 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in New Boston
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 Boston average
Your land is one point inside New Boston
Everything above resolves to New Boston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 602 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 New Boston Average
New Boston Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New Boston
- ●One soil character for all of New Boston
- ●Frost dates read at New Boston's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Boston's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Boston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Boston, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Boston averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Boston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Boston average
How we know this about New Boston
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 New Boston’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 New Boston
When does frost risk typically end in New Boston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Boston 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 New Boston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Boston 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 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Boston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Boston sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Boston?
The federal record around New Boston shows 92 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 New Boston?
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 New Boston's scale — its 5b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Boston'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 Boston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Boston's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 602 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Boston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Boston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Boston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Boston's boundary and the 602 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Boston'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 New Boston's 602 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Boston's 602 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Boston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 602 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Boston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNew Boston sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides