Gurnee, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gurnee, 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 Gurnee 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 Gurnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gurnee — the short answer
Gurnee, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Gurnee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gurnee's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gurnee
Each reading below is measured for Gurnee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGurnee runs about 207 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
MeasuredGurnee 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 Gurnee is in
Gurnee sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gurnee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Gurnee
Every plant below cleared Gurnee's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gurnee?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Gurnee
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Gurnee, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gurnee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gurnee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GURNEEPFAS · 1400 ft
- PURPOSE BUILT BRANDSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- WEIMAN PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- ACTAVIS INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Speedway #7350Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY SUPERAMERICA STORE 7350Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BETHESDA CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BUICK GMC OF GURNEEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Six Flags Great AmericaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Gurnee MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ASSOCIATED PLASTIC FAB INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gurnee'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 Gurnee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gurnee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gurnee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gurnee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gurnee — PFAS (23 sites) and Superfund (22 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gurnee
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 Gurnee average
Your land is one point inside Gurnee
Everything above resolves to Gurnee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Gurnee Average
Gurnee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gurnee
- ●One soil character for all of Gurnee
- ●Frost dates read at Gurnee's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gurnee's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gurnee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gurnee, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gurnee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gurnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gurnee average
How we know this about Gurnee
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 Gurnee’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 Gurnee
When does frost risk typically end in Gurnee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gurnee typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Gurnee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gurnee typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gurnee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gurnee sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 20, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gurnee?
The federal record around Gurnee runs heavier than most — 1,490 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (725), the nearest PFAS record about 0.3 miles 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 Gurnee?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gurnee's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gurnee'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 Gurnee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gurnee's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,649 acres it covers and 1,490 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gurnee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gurnee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 3 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,490 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gurnee, the closest PFAS record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gurnee's boundary and the 8,649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gurnee's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gurneelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gurnee's 8,649 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 Gurnee's 8,649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gurnee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,649 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.3 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 Gurnee-wide figureread your own land →