Deer Grove, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Deer Grove, 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 Deer Grove 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 Deer Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Grove — the short answer
Deer Grove, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 263 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 263 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 Deer Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Grove's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Grove
Each reading below is measured for Deer Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Grove runs about 195 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
MeasuredDeer Grove 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 Deer Grove is in
Deer Grove sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deer Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whiteside County.
What Grows in Deer Grove
Every plant below cleared Deer Grove's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Grove?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Deer Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rock River Valley Skydivers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Hostetler H WUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Dir Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Whiteside Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GOLD STAR FS INC.-DEER GROVEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Hahnaman Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Cady Grain Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Hickory Hills and Jersey RdsNitrate · 2.1 mi
- Yates Rd and IL-40Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- Hahnaman-Albrecht IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Storage BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Walnut Sand & Gravel CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Grove'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 Deer Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Grove, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Deer Grove. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Deer Grove
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 Deer Grove average
Your land is one point inside Deer Grove
Everything above resolves to Deer Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 263 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 Deer Grove Average
Deer Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Deer Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Grove's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Grove's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Grove, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Grove average
How we know this about Deer Grove
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 Deer Grove’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 Deer Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Grove typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Deer Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Grove typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Grove sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 9, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Grove?
The federal record around Deer Grove shows 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Deer Grove?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Grove's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Grove'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 Deer Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deer Grove's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 263 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Grove's boundary and the 263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Grove's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Grove's 263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whiteside County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whiteside 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 Whiteside County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Grove's 263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 263 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 Deer Grove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisDeer Grove sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides