What USDA hardiness zone is Shelby County, Illinois?

Shelby County, Illinois spans USDA hardiness zones 6a to 6b. 69% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Shelby County, Illinois?

The median last spring freeze runs April 10 – April 17 across the 6 NOAA weather stations serving Shelby County, Illinois, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Illinois

Planting zones in Shelby County, Illinois

This county spans USDA zones 6a to 6b, so there is no single zone for Shelby County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 69% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 6a–6b 2 zones across 13 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 13 13 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 6 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 759 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Shelby County, Illinois as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

The growing season in Shelby County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 19 – October 24 across the 6 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around February 13 – February 20 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 10 – April 17 here.

Every spring date for your ZIP →

These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.

All 6 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 6 NOAA stations serving this county counts April 17 – October 19 as growing season (185 days). Widening to any single station gives April 10 – October 24 (197 days).

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Shelby County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 69% in zone 6b and wrong for the other 31%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
6b	9	69%
6a	4	31%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze April 10 – April 17

First fall freeze October 19 – October 24

Across the 6 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 185–195 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 83.5–85.9 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 11.6–12.3" across those 6 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 93% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 84 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Shelby County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
61957	6a	Windsor, IL	1.4 km
62422	6b	Ramsey, IL	20.7 km
62431	6b	Ramsey, IL	12.5 km
62438	6b	Shelbyville Dam, IL	12.3 km
62444	6b	Shelbyville Dam, IL	14.8 km
62462	6b	Neoga 4Nw, IL	13.1 km
62463	6b	Neoga 4Nw, IL	11.3 km
62465	6b	Windsor, IL	11.7 km
62534	6a	Shelbyville Dam, IL	13.7 km
62550	6a	Decatur Wtp, IL	23.7 km
62553	6b	Pana, IL	10.9 km
62565	6a	Shelbyville Dam, IL	2.8 km
62571	6b	Pana, IL	11.0 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Shelby County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 6 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	February 13 – February 20	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	February 13 – February 20	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	February 27 – March 6	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	March 6 – March 13	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	March 6 – March 13	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	March 6 – March 13	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	March 13 – March 20	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	March 20 – March 27	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	March 27 – April 3	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 3 – April 10	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	April 17 – April 24	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	April 24 – May 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	April 24 – May 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	April 24 – May 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	April 24 – May 1	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	April 24 – May 1	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	April 24 – May 1	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What survives the winter changes across Shelby County

Zone 6a carries 51 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 6a carries 51.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to May 3 to be careful. Median April 10 – April 17 across 6 stations; March 30 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to October 3 to be careful. Median October 19 – October 24 across 6 stations; November 5 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 6 stations behind these numbers

All 6 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 76 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Decatur Wtp, IL	USC00112193	April 14	October 24	192 days
Neoga 4Nw, IL	USC00116025	April 16	October 20	185 days
Pana, IL	USC00116579	April 17	October 23	188 days
Ramsey, IL	USC00117126	April 15	October 19	185 days
Shelbyville Dam, IL	USC00117876	April 10	October 24	195 days
Windsor, IL	USC00119354	April 16	October 22	187 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Shelby County sits in Illinois. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Illinois

Counties with the same zones — 6a–6b

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Trunk wrapZone 6a is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 6a, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.