Strawn, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Strawn, 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 Strawn 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 Strawn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Strawn — the short answer
Strawn, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 326 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 326 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 6a is Strawn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strawn's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strawn
Each reading below is measured for Strawn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStrawn runs about 205 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
MeasuredStrawn sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Strawn is in
Strawn sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Strawn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston County.
What Grows in Strawn
Every plant below cleared Strawn's own zone 6a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strawn?
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 31 — 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 Strawn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strawn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Meier Oil Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Fayette Township BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STRAWN TURKEY FARMCAFO · 1.6 mi
- DOUBLE L FARMS - FORREST FACILITYCAFO · 1.8 mi
- WESTVIEW TURKEY FARMCAFO · 2.3 mi
- JEFF MUELLER / MUELLER PORKCAFO · 3.1 mi
- EXPLORER PIPELINEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- GOLDEN CREEK TURKEY FARMCAFO · 3.4 mi
- NGPL STATION 312Brownfields · 4.2 mi
- MUELLER LIVESTOCK FARMCAFO · 4.5 mi
- 26N 8E-30.1dNitrate · 4.5 mi
- HARTMAN SWINE FACILITY - SIBLEYCAFO · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strawn'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 Strawn.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Strawn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strawn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strawn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strawn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Strawn — CAFO (13 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (77 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Strawn
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 Strawn average
Your land is one point inside Strawn
Everything above resolves to Strawn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 326 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 Strawn Average
Strawn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Strawn
- ●One soil character for all of Strawn
- ●Frost dates read at Strawn's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strawn's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strawn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strawn, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strawn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strawn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strawn average
How we know this about Strawn
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 Strawn’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 Strawn
When does frost risk typically end in Strawn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strawn 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 Strawn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strawn typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strawn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strawn sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strawn?
The federal record around Strawn shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Strawn?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strawn's scale — its 6a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strawn'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 Strawn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Strawn's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 326 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strawn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strawn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strawn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strawn's boundary and the 326 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strawn'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 Strawn's 326 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strawn's 326 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strawn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 326 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 Strawn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisStrawn sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides