Deer Park, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deer Park, 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 Park 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 Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Park — the short answer
Deer Park, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- 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 5b is Deer Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Park's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Park
Each reading below is measured for Deer Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Park runs about 196 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 Park 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 Park is in
Deer Park sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deer Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Deer Park
Every plant below cleared Deer Park's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Park?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Deer Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Deer Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deer Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lake Zurich MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS 3269Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- SAVERS STORE 1190Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- Amoco #15765Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- KILDEER AMOCOBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Pride of Lake CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WALMART 1404Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- COSTCO GASOLINE STATION 378Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- Costco #378Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Lake Zurich Micro Relay TowerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DICKS SPORTING GOODS 311Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- PORTRAIT INNOVATIONSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Park'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 Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deer Park — PFAS (19 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (137 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 Deer Park
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 Park average
Your land is one point inside Deer Park
Everything above resolves to Deer Park 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 Deer Park Average
Deer Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Deer Park
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Park
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Park's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Park's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Park, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Park average
How we know this about Deer Park
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 Park’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 Park
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Park typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Deer Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Park typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Park sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 12, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Park?
The federal record around Deer Park is a meaningful one — 2,018 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (923), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles 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 Deer Park?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Park's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Park'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 Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Deer Park's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,349 acres it covers and 2,018 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 26 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,018 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Park's boundary and the 2,349 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Park's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Deer Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Park's 2,349 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Park's 2,349 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,349 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Park-wide figureread your own land →