Odell, 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 Odell, 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 Odell 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 Odell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Odell — the short answer
Odell, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 689 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 689 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 Odell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Odell's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Odell
Each reading below is measured for Odell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOdell runs about 205 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
MeasuredOdell 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 Odell is in
Odell sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Odell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston County.
What Grows in Odell
Every plant below cleared Odell's own zone 6a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Odell?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Odell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Odell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Odell Fast StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Mackinson HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- At&T Odell Radio Tower Site #1Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Odell School Dist 160 & 435Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Odell TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Harvey Greiff IndividualUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Edwards Soil Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HISTORY WOOD WINDOWS LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- 29N 6E-10.8e1Nitrate · 950 ft
- BORDEN CHEMICAL SMITH DOUGLASS DIVILD980Brownfields · 1000 ft
- Stoneys SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Kirchner Ser CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Odell'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 Odell.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Odell
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Odell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Odell
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 Odell
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 Odell average
Your land is one point inside Odell
Everything above resolves to Odell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 689 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 Odell Average
Odell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Odell
- ●One soil character for all of Odell
- ●Frost dates read at Odell's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Odell's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Odell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Odell, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Odell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Odell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Odell average
How we know this about Odell
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 Odell’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 Odell
When does frost risk typically end in Odell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Odell typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Odell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Odell typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Odell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Odell sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Odell?
The federal record around Odell shows 106 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 Odell?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Odell's scale — its 6a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Odell'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 Odell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Odell's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 689 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Odell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Odell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Odell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Odell's boundary and the 689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Odell'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 Odell's 689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Odell's 689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Odell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 689 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 Odell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisOdell sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.