New Grand Chain, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in New Grand Chain, 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 Grand Chain 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 Grand Chain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Grand Chain — the short answer
New Grand Chain, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 668 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 668 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 7a is New Grand Chain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Grand Chain's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Grand Chain
Each reading below is measured for New Grand Chain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Grand Chain runs about 241 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 Grand Chain sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Grand Chain is in
New Grand Chain sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Grand Chain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pulaski County.
What Grows in New Grand Chain
Every plant below cleared New Grand Chain's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Grand Chain?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Grand Chain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Grand Chain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hillerman General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Hale Implement CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SHAWNEE COMM COLLEGEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Barnhill's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Pickup MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Clark 76Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MARTIN BROTHERS CONTAINERSSuperfund · 2.8 mi
- Roach 76Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Willingham FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Tapley Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Storage FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Lock & Dam 53Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Grand Chain'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 Grand Chain.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of New Grand Chain
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Grand Chain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Grand Chain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Grand Chain, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of New Grand Chain. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 Grand Chain
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 Grand Chain average
Your land is one point inside New Grand Chain
Everything above resolves to New Grand Chain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 668 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 Grand Chain Average
New Grand Chain Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across New Grand Chain
- ●One soil character for all of New Grand Chain
- ●Frost dates read at New Grand Chain's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Grand Chain's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Grand Chain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Grand Chain, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Grand Chain averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Grand Chain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Grand Chain average
How we know this about New Grand Chain
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 Grand Chain’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 Grand Chain
When does frost risk typically end in New Grand Chain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Grand Chain typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in New Grand Chain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Grand Chain typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Grand Chain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Grand Chain sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 2, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Grand Chain?
The federal record around New Grand Chain is a meaningful one — 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Grand Chain?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Grand Chain's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Grand Chain'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 Grand Chain’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Grand Chain's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 668 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Grand Chain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Grand Chain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 16 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Grand Chain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Grand Chain's boundary and the 668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Grand Chain'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 Grand Chain's 668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Grand Chain's 668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Grand Chain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Grand Chain-wide figureread your own land →