Walnut, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Walnut, 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 Walnut 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 Walnut — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Walnut — the short answer
Walnut, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 511 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 511 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 Walnut's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walnut's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walnut
Each reading below is measured for Walnut itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWalnut runs about 195 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
MeasuredWalnut 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 Walnut is in
Walnut sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Walnut's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bureau County.
What Grows in Walnut
Every plant below cleared Walnut's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Walnut?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. 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 Walnut
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walnut. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Avanti FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Formerly Ray's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Bureau Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Walnut Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Stone Gail KUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EMPIRE LEVEL MFG CORP-PEERLESSBrownfields · 800 ft
- Normandy ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Walnut Express LaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Sidebottom CreedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Von Holten Carlson ConstUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Pit Stop, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Floyd D Gustafson TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walnut'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 Walnut.
Total Sites
61
within ~10 miles of Walnut
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walnut
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walnut
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walnut, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Walnut. 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 Walnut
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 Walnut average
Your land is one point inside Walnut
Everything above resolves to Walnut as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 511 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 Walnut Average
Walnut Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Walnut
- ●One soil character for all of Walnut
- ●Frost dates read at Walnut's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walnut's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walnut
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walnut, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walnut averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walnut — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walnut average
How we know this about Walnut
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 Walnut’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 Walnut
When does frost risk typically end in Walnut?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walnut typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Walnut?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walnut 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walnut?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walnut sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 9, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walnut?
The federal record around Walnut shows 61 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), 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 Walnut?
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 Walnut's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walnut'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 Walnut’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Walnut's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 511 acres it covers and 61 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walnut's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walnut's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 61 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walnut, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walnut's boundary and the 511 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Walnut'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 Walnut's 511 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bureau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bureau 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 Bureau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walnut's 511 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walnut you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 511 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 Walnut-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWalnut sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides