Victoria, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Victoria, 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 Victoria 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 Victoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Victoria — the short answer
Victoria, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 289 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 289 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 Victoria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Victoria's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Victoria
Each reading below is measured for Victoria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVictoria runs about 193 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVictoria 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 Victoria is in
Victoria sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Victoria's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Knox County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Victoria
Every plant below cleared Victoria's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Victoria?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Victoria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Victoria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bothwell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ILLINI MANAGEMENT, INCCAFO · 2.5 mi
- KINGSDALE FARMS, INC.CAFO · 4.2 mi
- Oak Run Property Owners AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Lake View ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Oak Run Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- Oak Run Country Store (FS Fuel 24)Underground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- IMC FERTILIZER INCBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- PORK LANE PARTNERSHIPCAFO · 6.5 mi
- Altona Cooperative Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Former John SwansonUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Hometown Express #3Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Victoria'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 Victoria.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Victoria
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Victoria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Victoria
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Victoria, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Victoria — CAFO (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (68 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 Victoria
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 Victoria average
Your land is one point inside Victoria
Everything above resolves to Victoria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 289 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 Victoria Average
Victoria Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Victoria
- ●One soil character for all of Victoria
- ●Frost dates read at Victoria's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Victoria's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Victoria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Victoria, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Victoria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Victoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Victoria average
How we know this about Victoria
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 Victoria’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 Victoria
When does frost risk typically end in Victoria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Victoria typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Victoria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Victoria typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Victoria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Victoria sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 9, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Victoria?
The federal record around Victoria shows 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), 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 Victoria?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Victoria's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Victoria'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 Victoria’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Victoria's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 289 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Victoria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Victoria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 23 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Victoria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Victoria's boundary and the 289 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Victoria sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Victoria's 289 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Victoria's 289 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Victoria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 289 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 Victoria-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisVictoria sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides