Old Ripley, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Old Ripley, 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 Old Ripley 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 Old Ripley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Ripley — the short answer
Old Ripley, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 99 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 99 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 6b is Old Ripley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Ripley's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Ripley
Each reading below is measured for Old Ripley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Ripley runs about 225 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
MeasuredOld Ripley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Old Ripley is in
Old Ripley sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Old Ripley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bond County.
What Grows in Old Ripley
Every plant below cleared Old Ripley's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Ripley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Old Ripley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Ripley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Suggs StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Quick Shell SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Stevenson BP, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Funderburk's 66Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Denny's Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Pocahontas CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Pocahontas Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Munie DuaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Marathon Unit #7107Underground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE PIPELINE LP PIERRON STABrownfields · 5.6 mi
- Bond County Comm. School Dist 2Underground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- New Douglas Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Old Ripley'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 Old Ripley.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Old Ripley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Old Ripley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Ripley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Old Ripley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Old Ripley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Old Ripley
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 Old Ripley average
Your land is one point inside Old Ripley
Everything above resolves to Old Ripley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 99 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 Old Ripley Average
Old Ripley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Old Ripley
- ●One soil character for all of Old Ripley
- ●Frost dates read at Old Ripley's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Ripley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Ripley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Ripley, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Ripley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Ripley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Ripley average
How we know this about Old Ripley
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 Old Ripley’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 Old Ripley
When does frost risk typically end in Old Ripley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Ripley typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Old Ripley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Ripley typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Ripley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Ripley sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 23, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Ripley?
The federal record around Old Ripley shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Old Ripley?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Old Ripley's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Ripley'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 Old Ripley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Old Ripley's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 99 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Ripley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Ripley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 6 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Ripley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Ripley's boundary and the 99 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Ripley'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 Old Ripley's 99 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bond County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bond 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 Bond County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Old Ripley's 99 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Ripley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 99 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Old Ripley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisOld Ripley sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides