The Galena Territory, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 The Galena Territory, 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 The Galena Territory 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 The Galena Territory — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Galena Territory — the short answer
The Galena Territory, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 5a is The Galena Territory's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Galena Territory's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Galena Territory
Each reading below is measured for The Galena Territory itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThe Galena Territory runs about 188 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredThe Galena Territory sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 The Galena Territory is in
The Galena Territory sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at The Galena Territory's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jo Daviess County.
What Grows in The Galena Territory
Every plant below cleared The Galena Territory's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Galena Territory?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near The Galena Territory
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Galena Territory. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North Golf MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Galena Territory Assoc IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Galena TerritoryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- North Pro ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Info CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- South Pro ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Hutchings MineMining · 1.0 mi
- O Sincox ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- Doll MineMining · 1.9 mi
- RJ'S RECYCLINGBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Richard AnderbergUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Galena Territory'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 The Galena Territory.
Total Sites
400
within ~10 miles of The Galena Territory
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Galena Territory
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Galena Territory
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Galena Territory, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of The Galena Territory — Mining (291 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in The Galena Territory
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 Galena Territory average
Your land is one point inside The Galena Territory
Everything above resolves to The Galena Territory as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 The Galena Territory Average
The Galena Territory Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across The Galena Territory
- ●One soil character for all of The Galena Territory
- ●Frost dates read at The Galena Territory's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Galena Territory's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Galena Territory
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Galena Territory, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Galena Territory averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Galena Territory — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Galena Territory average
How we know this about The Galena Territory
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 The Galena Territory’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 The Galena Territory
When does frost risk typically end in The Galena Territory?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Galena Territory typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in The Galena Territory?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Galena Territory typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Galena Territory?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Galena Territory sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 6, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Galena Territory?
The federal record around The Galena Territory runs heavier than most — 400 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (291), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in The Galena Territory?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Galena Territory's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Galena Territory'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 The Galena Territory’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at The Galena Territory's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,047 acres it covers and 400 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Galena Territory's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- The Galena Territory's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 20 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 400 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Galena Territory, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Galena Territory's boundary and the 7,047 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at The Galena Territory's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so The Galena Territory's 7,047 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jo Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jo Daviess 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 Jo Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Galena Territory's 7,047 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Galena Territory you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,047 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 The Galena Territory-wide figureread your own land →
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