Red Bud, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, 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 Red Bud, 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 Red Bud 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 Red Bud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Bud — the short answer
Red Bud, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Red Bud's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Bud's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Bud
Each reading below is measured for Red Bud itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Bud runs about 224 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
MeasuredRed Bud 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 Red Bud is in
Red Bud sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Red Bud's own centroid rather than borrowed from Randolph County.
What Grows in Red Bud
Every plant below cleared Red Bud's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Bud?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Red Bud
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Bud. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEACONESS ILLINOIS, RED BUD REGIONAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Schleifer PetroleumUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Clementine ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Red Bud Han-Dee MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- St Clement Health ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RED BUD COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Red Bud MotomartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Norm Ser StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- INTER-CITY PRODS./SNYDER GENERAL CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- ROESLEIN MODULAR FABRICATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- D & R ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Artistic Hair Styling SalonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Bud'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 Red Bud.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Red Bud
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Bud
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Bud
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Bud, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Red Bud. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Red Bud
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 Red Bud average
Your land is one point inside Red Bud
Everything above resolves to Red Bud as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Red Bud Average
Red Bud Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Red Bud
- ●One soil character for all of Red Bud
- ●Frost dates read at Red Bud's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Bud's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Bud
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Bud, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Bud averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Bud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Bud average
How we know this about Red Bud
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Red Bud’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Red Bud
When does frost risk typically end in Red Bud?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Bud 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 Red Bud?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Bud typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Bud?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Bud sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 22, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Bud?
The federal record around Red Bud shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Brownfields 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 Red Bud?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Bud's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Bud'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 Red Bud’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red Bud's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,679 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Bud's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Bud's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 5 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Bud, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Bud's boundary and the 1,679 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Red Bud'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 Red Bud's 1,679 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Randolph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Randolph 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 Randolph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Bud's 1,679 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Bud you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,679 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Red Bud-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisRed Bud sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides