Toulon, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Toulon, 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 Toulon 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 Toulon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Toulon — the short answer
Toulon, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 651 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 651 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 5b is Toulon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Toulon's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Toulon
Each reading below is measured for Toulon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredToulon runs about 197 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
MeasuredToulon sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Toulon is in
Toulon sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Toulon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stark County.
What Grows in Toulon
Every plant below cleared Toulon's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Toulon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. 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 Toulon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Toulon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Casey's General Store #1301Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Streitmetter KennethUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Nelson Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Toulon Township & Road DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SGS NORTH AMERICA-PRECISION AG TOULONBrownfields · 350 ft
- Ag View FS IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Stark County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Stark County Cusd 1000Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Toulon Grain & Feed CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Youngs Sales & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Matson FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Greg Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Toulon'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 Toulon.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Toulon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Toulon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Toulon
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Toulon
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 Toulon average
Your land is one point inside Toulon
Everything above resolves to Toulon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 651 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 Toulon Average
Toulon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Toulon
- ●One soil character for all of Toulon
- ●Frost dates read at Toulon's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Toulon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Toulon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Toulon, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Toulon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Toulon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Toulon average
How we know this about Toulon
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 Toulon’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 Toulon
When does frost risk typically end in Toulon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Toulon typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Toulon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Toulon 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Toulon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Toulon sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 11, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Toulon?
The federal record around Toulon shows 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), 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 Toulon?
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 Toulon's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Toulon'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 Toulon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Toulon's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 651 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Toulon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Toulon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 25 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Toulon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Toulon's boundary and the 651 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Toulon'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 Toulon's 651 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stark 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 Stark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Toulon's 651 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Toulon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 651 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 Toulon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisToulon sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides