Darien, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Darien, 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 Darien 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 Darien — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Darien — the short answer
Darien, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Darien's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Darien's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Darien
Each reading below is measured for Darien itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDarien runs about 210 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
MeasuredDarien 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 Darien is in
Darien sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Darien's own centroid rather than borrowed from DuPage County.
What Grows in Darien
Every plant below cleared Darien's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Darien?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Darien
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Darien, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Darien
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Darien. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTHEAST REGIONAL WATER FACILITYPFAS · 25 ft
- DARIENPFAS · 25 ft
- Darien City OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 38N11E-28.1c2Nitrate · 2100 ft
- Drivo 98, Inc. (Darien Gas & Auto)Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NAM CORP MOBIL STATIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BP #10812Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Shell Station 1990-03Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Speedway #7765Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY 7765Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- PROTOTECH ENGINEERINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SMITHERS CTS IL LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Darien'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 Darien.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Darien
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Darien
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Darien, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Darien — PFAS (35 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (174 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Darien
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 Darien average
Your land is one point inside Darien
Everything above resolves to Darien as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Darien Average
Darien Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Darien
- ●One soil character for all of Darien
- ●Frost dates read at Darien's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Darien's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Darien
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Darien, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Darien averages can't show:
We read public map data around Darien — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Darien average
How we know this about Darien
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 Darien’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 Darien
When does frost risk typically end in Darien?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Darien typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Darien?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Darien typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Darien?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Darien sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 21, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Darien?
The federal record around Darien is a meaningful one — 2,679 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,310), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Darien?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Darien's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Darien'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 Darien’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Darien's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,951 acres it covers and 2,679 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Darien's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Darien's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 4 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,679 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Darien, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Darien's boundary and the 3,951 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Darien's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Darienlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Darien's 3,951 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DuPage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DuPage 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 DuPage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Darien's 3,951 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Darien you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,951 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Darien-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisDarien sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides