Valier, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Valier, 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 Valier 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 Valier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valier — the short answer
Valier, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 719 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 719 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 7a is Valier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valier's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valier
Each reading below is measured for Valier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValier runs about 226 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
MeasuredValier sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Valier is in
Valier sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valier's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Valier
Every plant below cleared Valier's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valier?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Valier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Claude R GulleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Big Ed's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Ron's MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Webb Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Hucks #114Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Janello SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- John StoeckerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Ragan JamesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Buckner Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Arondelli & Venegoni Dist IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Circle K #1351Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Brads AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valier'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 Valier.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Valier
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valier, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 109 sites within ~10 miles of Valier. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Valier
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 Valier average
Your land is one point inside Valier
Everything above resolves to Valier as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 719 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 Valier Average
Valier Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Valier
- ●One soil character for all of Valier
- ●Frost dates read at Valier's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valier's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valier, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valier average
How we know this about Valier
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 Valier’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 Valier
When does frost risk typically end in Valier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valier typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Valier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valier typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valier sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 23, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valier?
The federal record around Valier is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), 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 Valier?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valier's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valier'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 Valier’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valier's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 719 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valier's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 6 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valier, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valier's boundary and the 719 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valier's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valier's 719 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valier's 719 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 719 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 Valier-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisValier sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides