Willisville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Willisville, 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 Willisville 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 Willisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willisville — the short answer
Willisville, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 249 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 249 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 7a is Willisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willisville's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willisville
Each reading below is measured for Willisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWillisville runs about 226 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
MeasuredWillisville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Willisville is in
Willisville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Willisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Willisville
Every plant below cleared Willisville's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willisville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Willisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fleetwoods General Stores of WillisvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DenmarkUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Old Mobil StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Arch Of IllinoisUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Trico Comm Unit School Dist 176Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Misselhorn TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Streamline MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Fleetwoods General Stores, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Old Percy StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Arlyn's Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WASHINGTON COUNTY WATER COMPANYPFAS · 2.8 mi
- SOUTHERN PRECISION SANDSToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willisville'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 Willisville.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Willisville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willisville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Willisville — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (43 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Willisville
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 Willisville average
Your land is one point inside Willisville
Everything above resolves to Willisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 249 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 Willisville Average
Willisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Willisville
- ●One soil character for all of Willisville
- ●Frost dates read at Willisville's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willisville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willisville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willisville average
How we know this about Willisville
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 Willisville’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 Willisville
When does frost risk typically end in Willisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willisville typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Willisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willisville typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willisville sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 23, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willisville?
The federal record around Willisville is a meaningful one — 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Willisville?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willisville's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willisville'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 Willisville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Willisville's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 249 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 6 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willisville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willisville's boundary and the 249 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willisville'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 Willisville's 249 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willisville's 249 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 249 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Willisville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWillisville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides