New Milford, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Milford, 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 Milford 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 Milford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Milford — the short answer
New Milford, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Milford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Milford's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Milford
Each reading below is measured for New Milford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Milford runs about 194 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 Milford 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 Milford is in
New Milford sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Milford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Winnebago County.
What Grows in New Milford
Every plant below cleared New Milford's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Milford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near New Milford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Milford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROCKVIEW ASPHALT PLANTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ACME SOLVENT RECLAIMING, INC. (MORRISTOWN PLANT)Superfund · 0.7 mi
- WINNEBAGO LANDFILLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PAGEL'S PITSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- Express Lane #34Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MAGGIO TRUCK CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- XPO Logistics Freight, Inc. - XRFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- XPO LOGISTICS FREIGHT, INC. - XRFBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC DIA6Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- ATWOOD PARK MAINTBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Seth B Atwood ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Dave's Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Milford'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 Milford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Milford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Milford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Milford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Milford — Toxics Release Inventory (109 sites) and Superfund (18 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in New Milford
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 Milford average
Your land is one point inside New Milford
Everything above resolves to New Milford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Milford Average
New Milford Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New Milford
- ●One soil character for all of New Milford
- ●Frost dates read at New Milford's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Milford's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Milford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Milford, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Milford averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Milford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Milford average
How we know this about New Milford
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 Milford’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 Milford
When does frost risk typically end in New Milford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Milford typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in New Milford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Milford typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Milford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Milford sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 9, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Milford?
The federal record around New Milford runs heavier than most — 1,296 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (671), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in New Milford?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Milford's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Milford'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 Milford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Milford's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,731 acres it covers and 1,296 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Milford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Milford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 23 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,296 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Milford, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Milford's boundary and the 1,731 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Milford'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 Milford's 1,731 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Winnebago County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Winnebago 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 Winnebago County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Milford's 1,731 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Milford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,731 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Milford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNew Milford sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides