Freeport, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Freeport, 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 Freeport 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 Freeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Freeport — the short answer
Freeport, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 5a is Freeport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freeport's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Freeport
Each reading below is measured for Freeport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFreeport runs about 192 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
MeasuredFreeport sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Freeport is in
Freeport sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Freeport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stephenson County.
What Grows in Freeport
Every plant below cleared Freeport's own zone 5a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Freeport?
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 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Freeport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Freeport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- West Street MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KNOWLTON MOTORS INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- Downing & Otte ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Freeport AdvertiserUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LENNON RESIDENCESuperfund · 1700 ft
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 1410Brownfields · 2000 ft
- Freeport School District #145Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CUB FOODS 1625Brownfields · 2200 ft
- FREEPORT MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Murphy - GustafsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JOHNNY ON THE SPOT CLEANERSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Freeport Memorial HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freeport'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 Freeport.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Freeport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Freeport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Freeport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freeport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Freeport — CAFO (6 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Freeport
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 Freeport average
Your land is one point inside Freeport
Everything above resolves to Freeport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Freeport Average
Freeport Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Freeport
- ●One soil character for all of Freeport
- ●Frost dates read at Freeport's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freeport's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Freeport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freeport, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freeport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freeport average
How we know this about Freeport
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 Freeport’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 Freeport
When does frost risk typically end in Freeport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freeport 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 Freeport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Freeport typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Freeport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freeport sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 8, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freeport?
The federal record around Freeport is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), 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 Freeport?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Freeport's scale — its 5a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freeport'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 Freeport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Freeport's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,595 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freeport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freeport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 22 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Freeport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Freeport's boundary and the 7,595 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Freeport'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 Freeport's 7,595 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stephenson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stephenson 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 Stephenson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Freeport's 7,595 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Freeport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,595 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 Freeport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisFreeport sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides