Olive Branch, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Olive Branch, 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 Olive Branch 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 Olive Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olive Branch — the short answer
Olive Branch, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 7a is Olive Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olive Branch's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olive Branch
Each reading below is measured for Olive Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlive Branch runs about 244 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
MeasuredOlive Branch sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Olive Branch is in
Olive Branch sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Olive Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alexander County.
What Grows in Olive Branch
Every plant below cleared Olive Branch's own zone 7a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olive Branch?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Olive Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olive Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Watson Oil Products IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Ford Bruce & CliffordUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- County Maint YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Fill-Up MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Jones Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 16S 2W- 4.8bNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 16S 2E- 7.7fNitrate · 3.8 mi
- Pulaski/Sandusky Rd and IL-127Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- Huffman's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- Butcher BlockUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- Unimin Specialty Minerals IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Egyptian School Dist #5Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olive Branch'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 Olive Branch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olive Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olive Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Olive Branch
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 Olive Branch average
Your land is one point inside Olive Branch
Everything above resolves to Olive Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Olive Branch Average
Olive Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Olive Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Olive Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Olive Branch's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olive Branch's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olive Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olive Branch, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olive Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olive Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olive Branch average
How we know this about Olive Branch
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 Olive Branch’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 Olive Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Olive Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olive Branch typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Olive Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olive Branch typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olive Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olive Branch sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 2, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olive Branch?
The federal record around Olive Branch is a meaningful one — 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Olive Branch?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olive Branch's scale — its 7a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olive Branch'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 Olive Branch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Olive Branch's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,046 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olive Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olive Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 16 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olive Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olive Branch's boundary and the 6,046 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olive Branch'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 Olive Branch's 6,046 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alexander County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alexander 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 Alexander County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olive Branch's 6,046 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olive Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,046 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Olive Branch-wide figureread your own land →