Vergennes, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Vergennes, 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 Vergennes 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 Vergennes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vergennes — the short answer
Vergennes, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 225 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 225 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 Vergennes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vergennes's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vergennes
Each reading below is measured for Vergennes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVergennes runs about 225 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
MeasuredVergennes 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 Vergennes is in
Vergennes sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vergennes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Vergennes
Every plant below cleared Vergennes's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vergennes?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 5 — 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 Vergennes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vergennes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- V. W. Bowman Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Bigham BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- R A Williams IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Vergennes SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Southern FS, Inc. - MurphysboroUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Pinckneyville/Du Quoin AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Rail SidingUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- Elkville MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- General WoodworkingUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Casey's General Store #1727Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- Southern Illinois Regional LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vergennes'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 Vergennes.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Vergennes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vergennes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vergennes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vergennes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vergennes — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (102 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Vergennes
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 Vergennes average
Your land is one point inside Vergennes
Everything above resolves to Vergennes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 225 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 Vergennes Average
Vergennes Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Vergennes
- ●One soil character for all of Vergennes
- ●Frost dates read at Vergennes's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vergennes's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vergennes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vergennes, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vergennes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vergennes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vergennes average
How we know this about Vergennes
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 Vergennes’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 Vergennes
When does frost risk typically end in Vergennes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vergennes 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 Vergennes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vergennes typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vergennes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vergennes sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 22, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vergennes?
The federal record around Vergennes is a meaningful one — 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), 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 Vergennes?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vergennes's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vergennes'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 Vergennes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vergennes's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 225 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vergennes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vergennes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 5 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vergennes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vergennes's boundary and the 225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vergennes'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 Vergennes's 225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vergennes's 225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vergennes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 225 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 Vergennes-wide figureread your own land →