Rutland, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rutland, 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 Rutland 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 Rutland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rutland — the short answer
Rutland, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 444 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 444 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 5b is Rutland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rutland's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rutland
Each reading below is measured for Rutland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRutland runs about 202 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
MeasuredRutland sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Rutland is in
Rutland sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rutland's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in Rutland
Every plant below cleared Rutland's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rutland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Rutland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rutland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 29N 1E-13.6eNitrate · 1.1 mi
- Auto Gas of RutlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 29N 2E-15.8cNitrate · 2.8 mi
- Wenona Minit Mart #647Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Zaynah Petroleum, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Maintenance Yard Illinois Dept. of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- IDOT WENONABrownfields · 4.0 mi
- Wenona Kerr McgeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Toluca Comm Unit Schl Dist 2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Goodwin Bros Ford MercuryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Benson Farmers CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- SMFBrownfields · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rutland'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 Rutland.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Rutland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rutland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rutland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rutland, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Rutland. 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 Rutland
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 Rutland average
Your land is one point inside Rutland
Everything above resolves to Rutland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 444 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 Rutland Average
Rutland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Rutland
- ●One soil character for all of Rutland
- ●Frost dates read at Rutland's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rutland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rutland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rutland, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rutland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rutland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rutland average
How we know this about Rutland
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 Rutland’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 Rutland
When does frost risk typically end in Rutland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rutland typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Rutland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rutland typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rutland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rutland sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rutland?
The federal record around Rutland shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Rutland?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rutland's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rutland'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 Rutland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rutland's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 444 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rutland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rutland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 29 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rutland, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rutland's boundary and the 444 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rutland's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rutland's 444 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rutland's 444 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rutland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 444 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Rutland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisRutland sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides