Durand, 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.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Durand, 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 Durand 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 Durand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Durand — the short answer
Durand, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 588 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 588 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 Durand's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Durand's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Durand
Each reading below is measured for Durand itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDurand runs about 191 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
MeasuredDurand 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 Durand is in
Durand sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Durand's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Winnebago County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Durand
Every plant below cleared Durand's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Durand?
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 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 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Durand
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Durand. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cecil's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ACF ORGANICSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MATTESON SVC CTRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Sewer Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Kinney's Pump HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Kinney Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Spelman SuncocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Ray Satness Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Durand ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Rogers Ready Mix and Materials IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Lake Summerset Maint FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Mr. Quick's Lakie View MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Durand'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 Durand.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Durand
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Durand
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Durand
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Durand, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Durand. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Durand
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 Durand average
Your land is one point inside Durand
Everything above resolves to Durand as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 588 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 Durand Average
Durand Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Durand
- ●One soil character for all of Durand
- ●Frost dates read at Durand's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Durand's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Durand
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Durand, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Durand averages can't show:
We read public map data around Durand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Durand average
How we know this about Durand
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 Durand’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 Durand
When does frost risk typically end in Durand?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Durand 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 Durand?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Durand typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Durand?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Durand sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 7, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Durand?
The federal record around Durand shows 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), 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 Durand?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Durand's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Durand'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 Durand’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Durand's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 588 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Durand's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Durand's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 21 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Durand, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Durand's boundary and the 588 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Durand sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Durand's 588 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Winnebago County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Winnebago 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 Winnebago County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Durand's 588 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Durand you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 588 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 Durand-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisDurand sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides