Sailor Springs, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Sailor Springs, 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 Sailor Springs 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 Sailor Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sailor Springs — the short answer
Sailor Springs, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 166 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 166 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 6b is Sailor Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sailor Springs's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sailor Springs
Each reading below is measured for Sailor Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSailor Springs runs about 219 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
MeasuredSailor Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Sailor Springs is in
Sailor Springs sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sailor Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Sailor Springs
Every plant below cleared Sailor Springs's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sailor Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Sailor Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sailor Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OUTLAW AG SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Clay City Sewer PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Nix StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Leo Butler EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Siemer Grain Co IngrahamUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Lubert Schnautz Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- J. W. RudyUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Barker TomUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Shaffer Oil Field ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Natl Oil WellUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Abner TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- H Cash Oil Field SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sailor Springs'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 Sailor Springs.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Sailor Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sailor Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sailor Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sailor Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sailor Springs — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (65 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sailor Springs
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 Sailor Springs average
Your land is one point inside Sailor Springs
Everything above resolves to Sailor Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 166 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 Sailor Springs Average
Sailor Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sailor Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Sailor Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Sailor Springs's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sailor Springs's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sailor Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sailor Springs, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sailor Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sailor Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sailor Springs average
How we know this about Sailor Springs
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 Sailor Springs’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 Sailor Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Sailor Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sailor Springs typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Sailor Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sailor Springs typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sailor Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sailor Springs sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sailor Springs?
The federal record around Sailor Springs shows 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Sailor Springs?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sailor Springs's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sailor Springs'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 Sailor Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sailor Springs's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 166 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sailor Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sailor Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sailor Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sailor Springs's boundary and the 166 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sailor Springs'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 Sailor Springs's 166 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sailor Springs's 166 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sailor Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 166 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Sailor Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisSailor Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides