Tamaroa, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Tamaroa, 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 Tamaroa 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 Tamaroa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tamaroa — the short answer
Tamaroa, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 613 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 613 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 Tamaroa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tamaroa's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tamaroa
Each reading below is measured for Tamaroa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTamaroa runs about 226 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
MeasuredTamaroa 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 Tamaroa is in
Tamaroa sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tamaroa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Tamaroa
Every plant below cleared Tamaroa's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tamaroa?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Tamaroa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tamaroa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Casey's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Taylor Brothers Welding Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TAYLOR BROTHERS WELDING SVCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- TAMAROA TRAIN DERAILMENTSuperfund · 1500 ft
- Former Knight Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Community Cons School Dist 211Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RAYS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Ford MercuryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Coca Cola Bottling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Duquoin DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Coastal Mart 7334Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- ILLINOIS DEPT OF AGBrownfields · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tamaroa'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 Tamaroa.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Tamaroa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tamaroa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tamaroa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tamaroa, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Tamaroa. 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 Tamaroa
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 Tamaroa average
Your land is one point inside Tamaroa
Everything above resolves to Tamaroa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 613 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 Tamaroa Average
Tamaroa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tamaroa
- ●One soil character for all of Tamaroa
- ●Frost dates read at Tamaroa's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tamaroa's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tamaroa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tamaroa, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tamaroa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tamaroa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tamaroa average
How we know this about Tamaroa
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 Tamaroa’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 Tamaroa
When does frost risk typically end in Tamaroa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tamaroa typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Tamaroa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tamaroa typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tamaroa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tamaroa sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 24, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tamaroa?
The federal record around Tamaroa is a meaningful one — 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tamaroa?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tamaroa's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tamaroa'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 Tamaroa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tamaroa's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 613 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tamaroa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tamaroa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 7 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tamaroa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tamaroa's boundary and the 613 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tamaroa'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 Tamaroa's 613 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tamaroa's 613 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tamaroa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 613 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tamaroa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisTamaroa sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides