Raymond, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Raymond, 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 Raymond 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 Raymond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Raymond — the short answer
Raymond, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 804 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- 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
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 804 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 Raymond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Raymond's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Raymond
Each reading below is measured for Raymond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRaymond runs about 216 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
MeasuredRaymond 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 Raymond is in
Raymond sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Raymond's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Montgomery County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Raymond
Every plant below cleared Raymond's own zone 6a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Raymond?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (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. 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 Raymond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Raymond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MICKS AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- ARMES CUSTOM WOOD FINISHINGBrownfields · 450 ft
- Home Oil Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Montgomery CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- J&A TrustUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Sorrell's Farm Supply, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Raymond ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- West End Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 14668Brownfields · 2000 ft
- Lincolnwood High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bandy Chevrolet CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DAVES COLLISION SHOPBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Raymond'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 Raymond.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Raymond
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Raymond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Raymond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Raymond, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Raymond — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (35 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Raymond
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 Raymond average
Your land is one point inside Raymond
Everything above resolves to Raymond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 804 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 Raymond Average
Raymond Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Raymond
- ●One soil character for all of Raymond
- ●Frost dates read at Raymond's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Raymond's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Raymond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Raymond, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Raymond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Raymond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Raymond average
How we know this about Raymond
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 Raymond’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 Raymond
When does frost risk typically end in Raymond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Raymond typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Raymond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Raymond 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 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Raymond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Raymond sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 19, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Raymond?
The federal record around Raymond shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Brownfields 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 Raymond?
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 Raymond's scale — its 6a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Raymond'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 Raymond’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Raymond's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 804 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Raymond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Raymond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 2 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Raymond, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Raymond's boundary and the 804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Raymond sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Raymond's 804 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Raymond's 804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Raymond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 804 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Raymond-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisRaymond sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides