Viola, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Viola, 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 Viola 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 Viola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Viola — the short answer
Viola, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 536 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 536 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 Viola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Viola's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Viola
Each reading below is measured for Viola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredViola runs about 199 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
MeasuredViola 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 Viola is in
Viola sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Viola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Viola
Every plant below cleared Viola's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Viola?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Viola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Viola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Greene Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Mack TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- S & S Mobil SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Crop Production Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ASSOCIATED ENV MGMT SVC AEMS INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- 14N 2W-15.1d1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Winola High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Casey's General Store #2674Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MACK TRUCKINGBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LEONHARTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- P & R MFG COBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- K-2CAFO · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Viola'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 Viola.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Viola
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Viola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Viola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Viola, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Viola — CAFO (14 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (77 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Viola
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 Viola average
Your land is one point inside Viola
Everything above resolves to Viola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 536 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 Viola Average
Viola Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Viola
- ●One soil character for all of Viola
- ●Frost dates read at Viola's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Viola's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Viola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Viola, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Viola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Viola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Viola average
How we know this about Viola
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 Viola’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 Viola
When does frost risk typically end in Viola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Viola 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 Viola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Viola typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Viola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Viola sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 12, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Viola?
The federal record around Viola shows 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Viola?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Viola's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Viola'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 Viola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Viola's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 536 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Viola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Viola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 26 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Viola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Viola's boundary and the 536 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Viola'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 Viola's 536 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Viola's 536 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Viola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 536 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 Viola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisViola sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides