New Salem, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Salem, 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 Salem 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 Salem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Salem — the short answer
New Salem, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 671 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 671 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 6a is New Salem's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Salem's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Salem
Each reading below is measured for New Salem itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Salem runs about 210 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 Salem sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Salem is in
New Salem sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Salem's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in New Salem
Every plant below cleared New Salem's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Salem?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near New Salem
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Salem. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- New Salem TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- Hickory Ridge Landfill, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WHITE AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Pike Feeds IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Save A Lot GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PIKELANDCAFO · 3.0 mi
- Baylis Radio TownerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ZAC PRUETT INCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- VIGORTONE AG PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
- Griggsville Feed MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- A Leon Smith Const CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- ILLINOIS DEPT OF AGRICULTURE (CLEAN SWEEP)Brownfields · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Salem'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 Salem.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of New Salem
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Salem
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Salem
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Salem, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Salem — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (65 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Salem
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 Salem average
Your land is one point inside New Salem
Everything above resolves to New Salem as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 671 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 Salem Average
New Salem Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Salem
- ●One soil character for all of New Salem
- ●Frost dates read at New Salem's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Salem's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Salem
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Salem, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Salem averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Salem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Salem average
How we know this about New Salem
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 Salem’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 Salem
When does frost risk typically end in New Salem?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Salem typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in New Salem?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Salem typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Salem?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Salem sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 14, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Salem?
The federal record around New Salem shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Salem?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Salem's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Salem'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 Salem’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Salem's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 671 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Salem's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Salem's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 28 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Salem, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Salem's boundary and the 671 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Salem'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 Salem's 671 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 Salem's 671 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Salem you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 671 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Salem-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNew Salem sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides