Valley City, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Valley City, 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 Valley City 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 Valley City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley City — the short answer
Valley City, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 173 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 173 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 Valley City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley City's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley City
Each reading below is measured for Valley City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValley City runs about 218 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
MeasuredValley City 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 Valley City is in
Valley City sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Valley City
Every plant below cleared Valley City's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Valley City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Callender Construction Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Tate CheeseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BRUSH COLLEGE FINISHERSCAFO · 2.6 mi
- Consolidated Grain & Barge TerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Marshall RobertsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Robinson SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Bruce Lightle FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- United FeedsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Griggsville Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Casey's General Stores, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Jiffi Stop #572Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Logan Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley City'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 Valley City.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Valley City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valley City — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (49 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Valley City
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 Valley City average
Your land is one point inside Valley City
Everything above resolves to Valley City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 173 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 Valley City Average
Valley City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Valley City
- ●One soil character for all of Valley City
- ●Frost dates read at Valley City's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley City, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley City average
How we know this about Valley City
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 Valley City’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 Valley City
When does frost risk typically end in Valley City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley City typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Valley City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley City typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley City sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 20, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley City?
The federal record around Valley City shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Valley City?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley City's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley City'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 Valley City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valley City's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 173 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valley City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley City's boundary and the 173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley City'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 Valley City's 173 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley City's 173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 173 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 Valley City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisValley City sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides