Valmeyer, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Valmeyer, 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 Valmeyer 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 Valmeyer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valmeyer — the short answer
Valmeyer, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Valmeyer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valmeyer's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valmeyer
Each reading below is measured for Valmeyer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValmeyer runs about 232 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
MeasuredValmeyer 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 Valmeyer is in
Valmeyer sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valmeyer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Valmeyer
Every plant below cleared Valmeyer's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valmeyer?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 12 — 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.
Documented around Valmeyer
Survey cells within 31 miles of Valmeyer checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 248 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Valmeyer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valmeyer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAR GRAPHICSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Mike's Convenience & Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Mike Ser StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Myrick Feed CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Zephyr ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Niebruegge Henry AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Ha Niebruegge GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Phillips 66 Co #040175Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Valmeyer School Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 2S11W-35.3hNitrate · 1.7 mi
- Monroe County Road Dist #9Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Valmeyer Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valmeyer'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 Valmeyer.
Total Sites
430
within ~10 miles of Valmeyer
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valmeyer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valmeyer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valmeyer, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Valmeyer. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Valmeyer
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 Valmeyer average
Your land is one point inside Valmeyer
Everything above resolves to Valmeyer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Valmeyer Average
Valmeyer Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Valmeyer
- ●One soil character for all of Valmeyer
- ●Frost dates read at Valmeyer's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valmeyer's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valmeyer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valmeyer, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valmeyer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valmeyer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valmeyer average
How we know this about Valmeyer
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 Valmeyer’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 Valmeyer
When does frost risk typically end in Valmeyer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valmeyer 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 Valmeyer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valmeyer typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valmeyer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valmeyer sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 29, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valmeyer?
The federal record around Valmeyer runs heavier than most — 430 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (190), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Valmeyer?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valmeyer's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valmeyer'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 Valmeyer’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Valmeyer's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,191 acres it covers and 430 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valmeyer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valmeyer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 12 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 430 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valmeyer, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valmeyer's boundary and the 2,191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valmeyer's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Valmeyer checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valmeyer's 2,191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valmeyer's 2,191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valmeyer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Valmeyer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisValmeyer sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.