Tremont, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Tremont, 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 Tremont 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 Tremont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tremont — the short answer
Tremont, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 764 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 764 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 Tremont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tremont's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tremont
Each reading below is measured for Tremont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTremont runs about 208 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
MeasuredTremont 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 Tremont is in
Tremont sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tremont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tazewell County.
What Grows in Tremont
Every plant below cleared Tremont's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tremont?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Tremont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tremont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tazewell County Hwy Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Wiegand Fertilizer Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Horton TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Gauger MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Narmada Retails, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Tremont Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Brunner BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- R A Cullinan & Son, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VILLAGE AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Casey's General Store #2358Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Tremont Lumber Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MIDWEST FOUNDATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tremont'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 Tremont.
Total Sites
436
within ~10 miles of Tremont
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tremont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tremont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tremont, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tremont — CAFO (8 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Tremont
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 Tremont average
Your land is one point inside Tremont
Everything above resolves to Tremont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 764 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 Tremont Average
Tremont Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tremont
- ●One soil character for all of Tremont
- ●Frost dates read at Tremont's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tremont's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tremont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tremont, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tremont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tremont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tremont average
How we know this about Tremont
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 Tremont’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 Tremont
When does frost risk typically end in Tremont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tremont typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Tremont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tremont 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tremont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tremont sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tremont?
The federal record around Tremont is a meaningful one — 436 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (254), 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 Tremont?
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 Tremont's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tremont'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 Tremont’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tremont's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 764 acres it covers and 436 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tremont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tremont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 31 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 436 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tremont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tremont's boundary and the 764 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tremont'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 Tremont's 764 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tremont's 764 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tremont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 764 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 Tremont-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisTremont sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides