Tilton, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tilton, 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 Tilton 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 Tilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tilton — the short answer
Tilton, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Tilton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tilton's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tilton
Each reading below is measured for Tilton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTilton 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
MeasuredTilton 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 Tilton is in
Tilton sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tilton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Vermilion County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tilton
Every plant below cleared Tilton's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tilton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Tilton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tilton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Village Of TiltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Big R StoresUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- VERMILION AUTO CORPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Royal Buick & PontiacUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Circle K #1309Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Former Clark Oil & Refining CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FAMACO CORPBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Casey's General Store #2259Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CALIBER COLLISION CTR 2581Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- O'Neil Brothers Construct Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Norfolk And Western Railway CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GREENWOOD MOTORLINES DBA R&L CARRIERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tilton'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 Tilton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tilton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tilton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tilton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tilton — Superfund (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (39 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Tilton
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 Tilton average
Your land is one point inside Tilton
Everything above resolves to Tilton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Tilton Average
Tilton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tilton
- ●One soil character for all of Tilton
- ●Frost dates read at Tilton's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tilton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tilton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tilton, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tilton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tilton average
How we know this about Tilton
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 Tilton’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 Tilton
When does frost risk typically end in Tilton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tilton typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Tilton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tilton typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tilton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tilton sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tilton?
The federal record around Tilton is a meaningful one — 405 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (233), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Tilton?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tilton's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tilton'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 Tilton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tilton's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,433 acres it covers and 405 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tilton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tilton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 405 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tilton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tilton's boundary and the 2,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tilton sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tilton's 2,433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vermilion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vermilion 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 Vermilion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tilton's 2,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tilton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,433 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 Tilton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisTilton sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.