Wedron, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Wedron, 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 Wedron 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 Wedron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wedron — the short answer
Wedron, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 332 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 332 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 Wedron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wedron's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wedron
Each reading below is measured for Wedron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWedron runs about 204 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
MeasuredWedron 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 Wedron is in
Wedron sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wedron's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in Wedron
Every plant below cleared Wedron's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wedron?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Wedron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wedron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Burlington NorthernUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Wedron FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Doyle M. HoxleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- WEDRON GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATIONSuperfund · 500 ft
- Wedron Silica CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Stans RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COVIA SOLUTIONS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- WEDRON SILICA COBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BLACK LAB CORP LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- WOODHILL CABINETRY & DESIGN INCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- Serena FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- COMMUNITY UNIT SCH DIST 2Brownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wedron'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 Wedron.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wedron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wedron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wedron, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Wedron. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wedron
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 Wedron average
Your land is one point inside Wedron
Everything above resolves to Wedron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 332 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 Wedron Average
Wedron Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wedron
- ●One soil character for all of Wedron
- ●Frost dates read at Wedron's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wedron's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wedron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wedron, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wedron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wedron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wedron average
How we know this about Wedron
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 Wedron’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 Wedron
When does frost risk typically end in Wedron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wedron typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Wedron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wedron typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wedron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wedron sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 16, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wedron?
The federal record around Wedron is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wedron?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wedron's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wedron'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 Wedron’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wedron's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 332 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wedron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wedron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 30 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wedron, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wedron's boundary and the 332 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wedron'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 Wedron's 332 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wedron's 332 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wedron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 332 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 Wedron-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWedron sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.