Blue Island, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Blue Island, 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 Blue Island 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 Blue Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue Island — the short answer
Blue Island, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Blue Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Island's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Island
Each reading below is measured for Blue Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Island runs about 224 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
MeasuredBlue Island 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 Blue Island is in
Blue Island sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blue Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Blue Island
Every plant below cleared Blue Island's own zone 6a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Island?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Blue Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Blue Island, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blue Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Blue Island COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Village Discount Outlet IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- City of Blue IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Ridge Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BLUE ISLANDPFAS · 1000 ft
- ERKERT BROTHERS INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Richs SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- George J Roll & Sons IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Interstate TransmissionsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Berry Tire CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Wille Brothers Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Ridge Oil Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Island'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 Blue Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blue Island — Superfund (78 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (295 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Blue Island
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 Blue Island average
Your land is one point inside Blue Island
Everything above resolves to Blue Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Blue Island Average
Blue Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Blue Island
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Island
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Island's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Island's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Island, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Island average
How we know this about Blue Island
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 Blue Island’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 Blue Island
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Island typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Blue Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Island typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Island sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 28, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Island?
The federal record around Blue Island runs heavier than most — 4,130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,158), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Blue Island?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue Island's scale — its 6a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Island'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 Blue Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blue Island's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,605 acres it covers and 4,130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 11 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Island's boundary and the 2,605 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blue Island's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blue Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue Island's 2,605 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cook 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 Cook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Island's 2,605 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,605 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 Blue Island-wide figureread your own land →