New Canton, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in New Canton, 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 Canton 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 Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Canton — the short answer
New Canton, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 564 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 564 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 New Canton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Canton's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Canton
Each reading below is measured for New Canton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Canton runs about 225 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 Canton 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 New Canton is in
New Canton sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Canton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in New Canton
Every plant below cleared New Canton's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Canton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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 New Canton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Canton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Old J&D CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Donald Epley ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- New Canton Fast StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Sny Drainage DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Pike County Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 1200 N and 1200 ENitrate · 4.7 mi
- Parrack Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Lumley Norvin / Lumley TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Former Barry School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Meyers Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Barry School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Barry-West Pk Ambulance BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Canton'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 Canton.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of New Canton
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Canton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Canton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Canton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of New Canton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 New Canton
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 Canton average
Your land is one point inside New Canton
Everything above resolves to New Canton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 564 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 Canton Average
New Canton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across New Canton
- ●One soil character for all of New Canton
- ●Frost dates read at New Canton's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Canton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Canton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Canton, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Canton averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Canton average
How we know this about New Canton
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 Canton’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 Canton
When does frost risk typically end in New Canton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Canton typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in New Canton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Canton 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 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Canton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Canton sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 25, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Canton?
The federal record around New Canton is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 New Canton?
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 New Canton's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Canton'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 Canton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Canton's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 564 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Canton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Canton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 8 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Canton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Canton's boundary and the 564 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Canton'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 Canton's 564 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Canton's 564 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Canton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 564 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 Canton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNew Canton sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides