Waggoner, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waggoner, 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 Waggoner 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 Waggoner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waggoner — the short answer
Waggoner, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 156 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 156 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 6b is Waggoner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waggoner's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waggoner
Each reading below is measured for Waggoner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaggoner runs about 216 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
MeasuredWaggoner sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Waggoner is in
Waggoner sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waggoner's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Montgomery County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Waggoner
Every plant below cleared Waggoner's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waggoner?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Waggoner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waggoner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Joe's Mobil ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Farmersville Grain CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- SPRINGFIELD COAL CO LLC CROWN 2 MINEToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
- SPRINGFIELD COAL CO LLC CROWN 2 MINEBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- Hendricks BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Boente ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Jack FlashUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- BOOST TRUCK SALES LLCBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- Macoupin Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Zanesville Township GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 14668Brownfields · 5.5 mi
- West End Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waggoner'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 Waggoner.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Waggoner
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waggoner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waggoner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waggoner, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Waggoner. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Waggoner
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 Waggoner average
Your land is one point inside Waggoner
Everything above resolves to Waggoner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 156 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 Waggoner Average
Waggoner Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Waggoner
- ●One soil character for all of Waggoner
- ●Frost dates read at Waggoner's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waggoner's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waggoner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waggoner, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waggoner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waggoner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waggoner average
How we know this about Waggoner
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 Waggoner’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 Waggoner
When does frost risk typically end in Waggoner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waggoner typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Waggoner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waggoner typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waggoner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waggoner sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 19, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waggoner?
The federal record around Waggoner shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 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 Waggoner?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waggoner's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waggoner'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 Waggoner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Waggoner's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 156 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waggoner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waggoner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 2 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waggoner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waggoner's boundary and the 156 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Waggoner 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 Waggoner's 156 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waggoner's 156 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waggoner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 156 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 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 Waggoner-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWaggoner sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides