Ramsey, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ramsey, 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 Ramsey 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 Ramsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ramsey — the short answer
Ramsey, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 711 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 711 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 Ramsey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ramsey's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ramsey
Each reading below is measured for Ramsey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRamsey runs about 208 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
MeasuredRamsey 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 Ramsey is in
Ramsey sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ramsey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Ramsey
Every plant below cleared Ramsey's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ramsey?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Ramsey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ramsey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ramsey Microwave StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Ramsey Lake St Park-Dept ConserUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Bill RaineyUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Norfolk & Western Railway CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Denton Motor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Beck's Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Wills Tractor SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Kenneth F. EddyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RAMSEY CUSD 204Brownfields · 1800 ft
- ENVIRO TRANS LLCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Ramsey Villge OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Ramsey Com Unit School Dist #204Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ramsey'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 Ramsey.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Ramsey
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ramsey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ramsey
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 Ramsey
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 Ramsey average
Your land is one point inside Ramsey
Everything above resolves to Ramsey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 711 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 Ramsey Average
Ramsey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ramsey
- ●One soil character for all of Ramsey
- ●Frost dates read at Ramsey's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ramsey's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ramsey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ramsey, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ramsey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ramsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ramsey average
How we know this about Ramsey
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 Ramsey’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 Ramsey
When does frost risk typically end in Ramsey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ramsey typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Ramsey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ramsey typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ramsey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ramsey sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 13, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ramsey?
The federal record around Ramsey is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ramsey?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ramsey's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ramsey'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 Ramsey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ramsey's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 711 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ramsey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ramsey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 27 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ramsey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ramsey's boundary and the 711 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ramsey'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 Ramsey's 711 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ramsey's 711 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ramsey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 711 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 Ramsey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisRamsey sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.