Sherrard, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Sherrard, 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 Sherrard 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 Sherrard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sherrard — the short answer
Sherrard, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 594 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 594 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 Sherrard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sherrard's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sherrard
Each reading below is measured for Sherrard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSherrard runs about 201 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
MeasuredSherrard 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 Sherrard is in
Sherrard sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sherrard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Sherrard
Every plant below cleared Sherrard's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sherrard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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 Sherrard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sherrard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ed's Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 5th Avenue MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Osborn Enterprises CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Non Residence Real EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Kodiak Const CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-Eleven Store #34469Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Sherrard Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHERRARD JR/SR HIGH SCHOOLPFAS · 1.6 mi
- Richland Grove TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Rural Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Doonan Implement CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Forsberg Electric Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sherrard'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 Sherrard.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Sherrard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sherrard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sherrard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sherrard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sherrard — CAFO (8 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sherrard
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 Sherrard average
Your land is one point inside Sherrard
Everything above resolves to Sherrard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 594 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 Sherrard Average
Sherrard Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sherrard
- ●One soil character for all of Sherrard
- ●Frost dates read at Sherrard's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sherrard's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sherrard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sherrard, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sherrard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sherrard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sherrard average
How we know this about Sherrard
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 Sherrard’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 Sherrard
When does frost risk typically end in Sherrard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sherrard typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Sherrard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sherrard 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sherrard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sherrard sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 13, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sherrard?
The federal record around Sherrard is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sherrard?
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 Sherrard's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sherrard'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 Sherrard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sherrard's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 594 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sherrard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sherrard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 27 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sherrard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sherrard's boundary and the 594 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sherrard'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 Sherrard's 594 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sherrard's 594 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sherrard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 594 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Sherrard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisSherrard sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides