North Pekin, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Pekin, 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 North Pekin 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 North Pekin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Pekin — the short answer
North Pekin, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 879 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)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 879 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 North Pekin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Pekin's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Pekin
Each reading below is measured for North Pekin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Pekin runs about 215 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
MeasuredNorth Pekin 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 North Pekin is in
North Pekin sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Pekin's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tazewell County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Pekin
Every plant below cleared North Pekin's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Pekin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 2 — 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 North Pekin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Pekin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWAWNS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Central Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Rogers Cartage CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Ehr DevelopmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ORM CORPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SANDROCK AUTOBODYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- COLLISIONRIGHT LLC DBA DS PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- PEORIA PATTERN CO INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- North Pekin Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Casey's General Store #2210Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Rocket Motor Freight LinesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAITE EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Pekin'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 North Pekin.
Total Sites
1,129
within ~10 miles of North Pekin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Pekin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Pekin
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in North Pekin
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 North Pekin average
Your land is one point inside North Pekin
Everything above resolves to North Pekin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 879 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 North Pekin Average
North Pekin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North Pekin
- ●One soil character for all of North Pekin
- ●Frost dates read at North Pekin's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Pekin's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Pekin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Pekin, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Pekin averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Pekin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Pekin average
How we know this about North Pekin
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 North Pekin’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 North Pekin
When does frost risk typically end in North Pekin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Pekin 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 North Pekin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Pekin 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 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Pekin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Pekin sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 19, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Pekin?
The federal record around North Pekin is a meaningful one — 1,129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (663), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 North Pekin?
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 North Pekin's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Pekin'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 North Pekin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Pekin's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 879 acres it covers and 1,129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Pekin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Pekin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Pekin, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Pekin's boundary and the 879 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Pekin sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Pekin's 879 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Pekin's 879 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Pekin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 879 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 North Pekin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNorth Pekin sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides