Walshville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Walshville, 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 Walshville 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 Walshville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Walshville — the short answer
Walshville, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 163 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 Walshville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walshville's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walshville
Each reading below is measured for Walshville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWalshville runs about 221 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
MeasuredWalshville 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 Walshville is in
Walshville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Walshville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Walshville
Every plant below cleared Walshville's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Walshville?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Walshville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walshville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIMBERLINE PORKCAFO · 1.8 mi
- Eichmeyer Trail and Dutchman RdNitrate · 3.9 mi
- HEMANN DONBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- Walshville Elevator IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Royer Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Sorento GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- NEKOOSA PACKAGING CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 5.3 mi
- Sorento Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Bone Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Bond County Comm. School Dist 2Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- THE MENNEL MILLING COMPANY OF ILLINOISToxics Release Inventory · 5.5 mi
- Jeep Niehaus & Sons LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walshville'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 Walshville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walshville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walshville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walshville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Walshville — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (118 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Walshville
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 Walshville average
Your land is one point inside Walshville
Everything above resolves to Walshville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 Walshville Average
Walshville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Walshville
- ●One soil character for all of Walshville
- ●Frost dates read at Walshville's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walshville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walshville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walshville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walshville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walshville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walshville average
How we know this about Walshville
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 Walshville’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 Walshville
When does frost risk typically end in Walshville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walshville typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Walshville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walshville 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 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walshville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walshville sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walshville?
The federal record around Walshville is a meaningful one — 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest CAFO record about 1.8 miles 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 Walshville?
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 Walshville's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walshville'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 Walshville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Walshville's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walshville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walshville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walshville, the closest CAFO record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walshville's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Walshville'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 Walshville's 163 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 Walshville's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walshville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 1.8 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 Walshville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWalshville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides