St. Francisville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in St. Francisville, 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 St. Francisville 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 St. Francisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. Francisville — the short answer
St. Francisville, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 477 acres of city.
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 477 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 St. Francisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Francisville's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. Francisville
Each reading below is measured for St. Francisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. Francisville runs about 221 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
MeasuredSt. Francisville 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 St. Francisville is in
St. Francisville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. Francisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in St. Francisville
Every plant below cleared St. Francisville's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. Francisville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around St. Francisville
Survey cells within 31 miles of St. Francisville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 146 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near St. Francisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. Francisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Agrigold HybridsUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Mount Carmel Municipal AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- TurpenUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Home Oil & Farm Supply IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Paradigm Properties, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- former St. Fancisville Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MARATHON PIPELINE LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Kelly's KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Sand Barren StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RIVERSIDE GRAIN COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Ivers Farm Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- AKIN SEED COMPANYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Francisville'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 St. Francisville.
Total Sites
221
within ~10 miles of St. Francisville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. Francisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. Francisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. Francisville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 145 sites within ~10 miles of St. Francisville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 St. Francisville
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 St. Francisville average
Your land is one point inside St. Francisville
Everything above resolves to St. Francisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 477 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 St. Francisville Average
St. Francisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across St. Francisville
- ●One soil character for all of St. Francisville
- ●Frost dates read at St. Francisville's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Francisville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. Francisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Francisville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Francisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Francisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Francisville average
How we know this about St. Francisville
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 St. Francisville’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 St. Francisville
When does frost risk typically end in St. Francisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Francisville 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 St. Francisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. Francisville typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. Francisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Francisville sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. Francisville?
The federal record around St. Francisville is a meaningful one — 221 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 St. Francisville?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. Francisville's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Francisville'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 St. Francisville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at St. Francisville's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 477 acres it covers and 221 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Francisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. Francisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 221 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. Francisville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. Francisville's boundary and the 477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. Francisville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around St. Francisville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. Francisville's 477 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. Francisville's 477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. Francisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 St. Francisville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisSt. Francisville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides