Evanston, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Evanston, 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 Evanston 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 Evanston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Evanston — the short answer
Evanston, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Evanston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Evanston's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Evanston
Each reading below is measured for Evanston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEvanston 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
MeasuredEvanston 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 Evanston is in
Evanston sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Evanston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Evanston
Every plant below cleared Evanston'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 Evanston?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Evanston
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Evanston, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Evanston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Evanston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- John J Cahill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Advanced Disposal Evanston TransferUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EVANSTON TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1300 ft
- COM EDBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Onyx Waste Services, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TAPECOAT CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- TAPECOAT CO INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Continental Construction Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 1575 Oak BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Auto Fitness CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Positive ConnectionsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Evanston Vehicle Maint FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Evanston'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 Evanston.
Total Sites
3,352
within ~10 miles of Evanston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
23 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Evanston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Evanston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Evanston, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 259 sites within ~10 miles of Evanston. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Evanston
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 Evanston average
Your land is one point inside Evanston
Everything above resolves to Evanston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Evanston Average
Evanston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Evanston
- ●One soil character for all of Evanston
- ●Frost dates read at Evanston's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Evanston's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Evanston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Evanston, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Evanston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Evanston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Evanston average
How we know this about Evanston
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 Evanston’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 Evanston
When does frost risk typically end in Evanston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Evanston typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Evanston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Evanston typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Evanston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Evanston sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 30, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Evanston?
The federal record around Evanston is a meaningful one — 3,352 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,669), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Evanston?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Evanston's scale — its 6a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Evanston'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 Evanston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Evanston's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,979 acres it covers and 3,352 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Evanston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Evanston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 13 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,352 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Evanston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Evanston's boundary and the 4,979 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 Evanston's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Evanstonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Evanston's 4,979 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 Evanston's 4,979 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Evanston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,979 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Evanston-wide figureread your own land →
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