West Union, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Union, 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 West Union 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 West Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Union — the short answer
West Union, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 West Union's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Union's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Union
Each reading below is measured for West Union itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Union runs about 215 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
MeasuredWest Union 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 West Union is in
West Union sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Union's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in West Union
Every plant below cleared West Union's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Union?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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.
Documented around West Union
Survey cells within 31 miles of West Union checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 125 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Union
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Union. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lincoln Trail Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Jambaa, Inc. d/b/a KraemartUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Huisinga Grain Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Forrestech C/O Mehler-ShawlerUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Bunker Hill Supply Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Strohm Oil Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Marathon Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Howard Auto SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 1 mile NE of West UnionNitrate · 1.5 mi
- 10 miles S of MarshallNitrate · 1.6 mi
- Chapman Bros., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Rainbow AcresUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Union'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 West Union.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of West Union
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Union
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Union
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Union, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of West Union. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in West Union
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 West Union average
Your land is one point inside West Union
Everything above resolves to West Union as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 West Union Average
West Union Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across West Union
- ●One soil character for all of West Union
- ●Frost dates read at West Union's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Union's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Union
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Union, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Union averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Union average
How we know this about West Union
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 West Union’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 West Union
When does frost risk typically end in West Union?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Union typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in West Union?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Union 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 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Union?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Union sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 19, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Union?
The federal record around West Union is a meaningful one — 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 West Union?
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 West Union's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Union'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 West Union’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Union's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,157 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Union's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Union's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Union, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Union's boundary and the 1,157 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Union's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around West Union checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Union's 1,157 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Union's 1,157 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Union you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,157 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 West Union-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWest Union sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides