Apple Canyon Lake, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Apple Canyon Lake, 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 Apple Canyon Lake 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 Apple Canyon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Apple Canyon Lake — the short answer
Apple Canyon Lake, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5a is Apple Canyon Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apple Canyon Lake's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apple Canyon Lake
Each reading below is measured for Apple Canyon Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApple Canyon Lake runs about 180 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredApple Canyon Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Apple Canyon Lake is in
Apple Canyon Lake sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Apple Canyon Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jo Daviess County.
What Grows in Apple Canyon Lake
Every plant below cleared Apple Canyon Lake's own zone 5a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apple Canyon Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Apple Canyon Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apple Canyon Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Apple Rive AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Apple Canyon Lake POA MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Mulgrew Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Rick's Sales & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Thompson Twp Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Rockford Mining and Milling Co. MineMining · 4.2 mi
- HOLLAND, WILLIAMCAFO · 4.5 mi
- Guilford TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Gary Saam ConstUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Rush Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Jo Daviess Co Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Davis Farm SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apple Canyon Lake'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 Apple Canyon Lake.
Total Sites
136
within ~10 miles of Apple Canyon Lake
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apple Canyon Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apple Canyon Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apple Canyon Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Apple Canyon Lake — Mining (45 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Apple Canyon Lake
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 Apple Canyon Lake average
Your land is one point inside Apple Canyon Lake
Everything above resolves to Apple Canyon Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Apple Canyon Lake Average
Apple Canyon Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Apple Canyon Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Apple Canyon Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Apple Canyon Lake's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apple Canyon Lake's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apple Canyon Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apple Canyon Lake, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apple Canyon Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apple Canyon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apple Canyon Lake average
How we know this about Apple Canyon Lake
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 Apple Canyon Lake’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 Apple Canyon Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Apple Canyon Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apple Canyon Lake typically lands around Apr 20, 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 May 11.
When is the first frost in Apple Canyon Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apple Canyon Lake typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apple Canyon Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apple Canyon Lake sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 3, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apple Canyon Lake?
The federal record around Apple Canyon Lake runs heavier than most — 136 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Apple Canyon Lake?
From about Sep 17 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 Oct 17 (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 Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Apple Canyon Lake's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apple Canyon Lake'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 Apple Canyon Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Apple Canyon Lake's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,378 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apple Canyon Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apple Canyon Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 17 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apple Canyon Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apple Canyon Lake's boundary and the 2,378 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Apple Canyon Lake's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apple Canyon Lake's 2,378 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jo Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jo Daviess 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 Jo Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apple Canyon Lake's 2,378 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apple Canyon Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,378 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Apple Canyon Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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