Urbana, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Urbana, 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 Urbana 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 Urbana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Urbana — the short answer
Urbana, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Urbana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Urbana's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Urbana
Each reading below is measured for Urbana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUrbana runs about 209 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
MeasuredUrbana 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 Urbana is in
Urbana sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Urbana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Champaign County.
What Grows in Urbana
Every plant below cleared Urbana's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Urbana?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. 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 Urbana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Urbana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mr. Gas PlusUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TNT MECHANICAL CONTRACTORSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- KURLAND STEEL COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Kurland Steel CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Urbana Public Work DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- LONGS GARAGEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FIRST STUDENT INC 20339Brownfields · 1700 ft
- Maintenance Complex/Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PERSONAL TOUCH DRY CLEANINGBrownfields · 1800 ft
- EMULSICOAT, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- EMULSICOAT, INC.Brownfields · 2000 ft
- SOLO CUP OPERATING CORPBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Urbana'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 Urbana.
Total Sites
597
within ~10 miles of Urbana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Urbana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Urbana
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Urbana
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 Urbana average
Your land is one point inside Urbana
Everything above resolves to Urbana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Urbana Average
Urbana Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Urbana
- ●One soil character for all of Urbana
- ●Frost dates read at Urbana's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Urbana's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Urbana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Urbana, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Urbana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Urbana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Urbana average
How we know this about Urbana
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 Urbana’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 Urbana
When does frost risk typically end in Urbana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Urbana typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Urbana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Urbana 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Urbana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Urbana sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Urbana?
The federal record around Urbana is a meaningful one — 597 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (354), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Urbana?
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 Urbana's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Urbana'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 Urbana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Urbana's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,580 acres it covers and 597 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Urbana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Urbana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 597 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Urbana, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Urbana's boundary and the 7,580 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Urbana'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 Urbana's 7,580 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Champaign County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Champaign 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 Champaign County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Urbana's 7,580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Urbana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,580 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Urbana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisUrbana sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides