Evergreen Park, 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, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Evergreen 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 Evergreen 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 Evergreen Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Evergreen Park — the short answer
Evergreen Park, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- 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 6a is Evergreen Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Evergreen Park's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Evergreen Park
Each reading below is measured for Evergreen Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEvergreen Park runs about 225 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
MeasuredEvergreen Park 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 Evergreen Park is in
Evergreen Park sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Evergreen Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Evergreen Park
Every plant below cleared Evergreen Park's own zone 6a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Evergreen 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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Evergreen Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Evergreen Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Evergreen Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Evergreen Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Shell Station #2630-05Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 2790Brownfields · 250 ft
- Village of Evergreen Park PoliceUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- EVERGREEN PARKPFAS · 400 ft
- JP & MH INC PARK CLEANERSBrownfields · 650 ft
- Speedway #7757Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SPEEDWAY/SUPERAMERICA LLCBrownfields · 850 ft
- Evergreen Pk Ser StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Village of Evergreen Park-Street DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Vacant Lot Former Serv StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EVERGREEN AUTO REBUILDERSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SZI CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Evergreen 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 Evergreen Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Evergreen Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Evergreen Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Evergreen Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Evergreen Park — Superfund (113 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (495 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Evergreen 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 Evergreen Park average
Your land is one point inside Evergreen Park
Everything above resolves to Evergreen 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 Evergreen Park Average
Evergreen Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Evergreen Park
- ●One soil character for all of Evergreen Park
- ●Frost dates read at Evergreen Park's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Evergreen Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Evergreen Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Evergreen Park, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Evergreen Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Evergreen Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Evergreen Park average
How we know this about Evergreen 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 Evergreen 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 Evergreen Park
When does frost risk typically end in Evergreen Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Evergreen Park typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Evergreen Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Evergreen Park typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Evergreen Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Evergreen Park sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Evergreen Park?
The federal record around Evergreen Park runs heavier than most — 5,360 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,719), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Evergreen Park?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Evergreen Park's scale — its 6a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Evergreen 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 Evergreen Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Evergreen Park's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,024 acres it covers and 5,360 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Evergreen Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Evergreen Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,360 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Evergreen Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Evergreen Park's boundary and the 2,024 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Evergreen Park's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Evergreen Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Evergreen Park's 2,024 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 Evergreen Park's 2,024 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Evergreen 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 2,024 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Evergreen Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Growing region
Nearby growing guides