Westfield, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Westfield, 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 Westfield 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 Westfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westfield — the short answer
Westfield, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 626 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 626 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 Westfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westfield's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westfield
Each reading below is measured for Westfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestfield runs about 213 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
MeasuredWestfield 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 Westfield is in
Westfield sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Westfield's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clark County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Westfield
Every plant below cleared Westfield's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westfield?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Westfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Westfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 123 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Westfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alltel In Inc C/O WestfieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Finney Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Westfield Grain & Fertilizer IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Westfield Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EMBARRAS AREA WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 2.1 mi
- HAMLAND NORTH - FINISHING UNITCAFO · 3.3 mi
- AMERENCIPS ASHMORE GAS STORAGE FIELDBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- ARENDS HOGAN WALKERBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- I & I Deli, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Tax Property SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Bill Coffey & Sons IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- USE 0290055011Brownfields · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westfield'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 Westfield.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Westfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Westfield — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (49 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 Westfield
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 Westfield average
Your land is one point inside Westfield
Everything above resolves to Westfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 626 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 Westfield Average
Westfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Westfield
- ●One soil character for all of Westfield
- ●Frost dates read at Westfield's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westfield, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westfield average
How we know this about Westfield
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 Westfield’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 Westfield
When does frost risk typically end in Westfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westfield typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Westfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westfield 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westfield sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westfield?
The federal record around Westfield shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), 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 Westfield?
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 Westfield's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westfield'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 Westfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Westfield's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 626 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westfield's boundary and the 626 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Westfield sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Westfield 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 Westfield's 626 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 Westfield's 626 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 626 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 Westfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWestfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides