Varna, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Varna, 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 Varna 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 Varna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Varna — the short answer
Varna, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 190 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 190 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 5b is Varna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Varna's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Varna
Each reading below is measured for Varna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVarna runs about 202 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
MeasuredVarna sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Varna is in
Varna sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Varna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Varna
Every plant below cleared Varna's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Varna?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Varna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Varna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roberts Township BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Lundgren Donald JUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- L H Brown CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Varna Auto SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Formerly Richard Baker (Dick's Gas)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Casey's General Store #1490Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Ag View FS, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Mid County Unit #4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Grandview Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VELSICOL CHEMICAL CORP. (MARSHALL PLANT)Toxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- BADELAND DAIRYCAFO · 1.9 mi
- La Rose PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Varna'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 Varna.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Varna
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Varna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Varna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Varna, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 99 sites within ~10 miles of Varna. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Varna
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 Varna average
Your land is one point inside Varna
Everything above resolves to Varna as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 190 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 Varna Average
Varna Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Varna
- ●One soil character for all of Varna
- ●Frost dates read at Varna's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Varna's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Varna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Varna, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Varna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Varna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Varna average
How we know this about Varna
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 Varna’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 Varna
When does frost risk typically end in Varna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Varna typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Varna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Varna typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Varna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Varna sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Varna?
The federal record around Varna is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Varna?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Varna's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Varna'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 Varna’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Varna's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 190 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Varna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Varna's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 29 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Varna, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Varna's boundary and the 190 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Varna'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 Varna's 190 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Varna's 190 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Varna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 190 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Varna-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisVarna sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.