Aurora, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Aurora, 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 Aurora 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 Aurora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Aurora — the short answer
Aurora, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 29K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 29K 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 5b is Aurora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aurora's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aurora
Each reading below is measured for Aurora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAurora runs about 200 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
MeasuredAurora sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Aurora is in
Aurora sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Aurora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kane County.
What Grows in Aurora
Every plant below cleared Aurora's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aurora?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Aurora
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Aurora, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Aurora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aurora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Orozco Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Hillside Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Sunset Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TODO AUTO WRECKING & CASH FOR JUNK CARSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SCHMIDT & SONS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PHOENIX STEEL ERECTORSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 38N 8E-23.7h1Nitrate · 1900 ft
- Cannonball Express Line IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASINGBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Prime Time Citgo, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LEE VAN?RICHBrownfields · 2300 ft
- RichLee Vans, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aurora'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 Aurora.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aurora, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 141 sites within ~10 miles of Aurora. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Aurora
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 Aurora average
Your land is one point inside Aurora
Everything above resolves to Aurora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 29K 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 city 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 Aurora Average
Aurora Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Aurora
- ●One soil character for all of Aurora
- ●Frost dates read at Aurora's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aurora's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aurora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aurora, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aurora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aurora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aurora average
How we know this about Aurora
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Aurora’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Aurora
When does frost risk typically end in Aurora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aurora typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Aurora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aurora typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aurora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aurora sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 13, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aurora?
The federal record around Aurora runs heavier than most — 1,785 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (798), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Aurora?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Aurora's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aurora'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 Aurora’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Aurora's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 28,840 acres it covers and 1,785 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aurora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aurora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 27 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,785 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aurora, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aurora's boundary and the 28,840 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aurora's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Auroralydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aurora's 28,840 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kane 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 Kane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aurora's 28,840 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aurora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,840 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 Aurora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAurora sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides