Wenonah, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wenonah, 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 Wenonah 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 Wenonah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wenonah — the short answer
Wenonah, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 969 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 969 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 6a is Wenonah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wenonah's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wenonah
Each reading below is measured for Wenonah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWenonah runs about 218 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
MeasuredWenonah sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Wenonah is in
Wenonah sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wenonah'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 Wenonah
Every plant below cleared Wenonah's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wenonah?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 4 — 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 Wenonah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wenonah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- At&T Nokomis Radio TowerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Yard 11Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Yard 15Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hanson Material ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HANSON MATERIAL SERVICE YDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KROGER STORE 543Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- NOKOMIS JR/SR HIGH SCHBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Nokomis School Dist #22Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Lides MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Golitko ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- U-J's Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PROCESS SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wenonah'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 Wenonah.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Wenonah
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wenonah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wenonah
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Wenonah
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 Wenonah average
Your land is one point inside Wenonah
Everything above resolves to Wenonah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 969 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 Wenonah Average
Wenonah Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wenonah
- ●One soil character for all of Wenonah
- ●Frost dates read at Wenonah's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wenonah's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wenonah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wenonah, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wenonah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wenonah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wenonah average
How we know this about Wenonah
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 Wenonah’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 Wenonah
When does frost risk typically end in Wenonah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wenonah 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 Wenonah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wenonah typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wenonah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wenonah sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wenonah?
The federal record around Wenonah is a meaningful one — 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wenonah?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wenonah's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wenonah'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 Wenonah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wenonah's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 969 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wenonah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wenonah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wenonah, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wenonah's boundary and the 969 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wenonah 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 Wenonah's 969 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 Wenonah's 969 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wenonah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 969 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wenonah-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWenonah sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.