Hawthorn Woods, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hawthorn Woods, 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 Hawthorn Woods 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 Hawthorn Woods — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hawthorn Woods — the short answer
Hawthorn Woods, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Hawthorn Woods's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawthorn Woods's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawthorn Woods
Each reading below is measured for Hawthorn Woods itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHawthorn Woods runs about 193 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
MeasuredHawthorn Woods 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 Hawthorn Woods is in
Hawthorn Woods sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hawthorn Woods's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Hawthorn Woods
Every plant below cleared Hawthorn Woods's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hawthorn Woods?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hawthorn Woods
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Hawthorn Woods, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hawthorn Woods
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawthorn Woods. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Klaus Schmechtig CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MIMNATIC ZETTLEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- True North Location 1921Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Obenauf LilliamUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Ela Township Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Mundelein Disposal Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DESIGNCRAFT INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HYDRITE CHEMICAL COBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- HYDRITE CHEMICAL COToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- CVS HEALTHBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- LAKE ZURICH RADIATOR & AIRCONDBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- AIRCRAFT PROPELLER SERVICE LLCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawthorn Woods'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 Hawthorn Woods.
Total Sites
1,615
within ~10 miles of Hawthorn Woods
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawthorn Woods
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawthorn Woods
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawthorn Woods, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hawthorn Woods — PFAS (19 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (112 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hawthorn Woods
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 Hawthorn Woods average
Your land is one point inside Hawthorn Woods
Everything above resolves to Hawthorn Woods 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 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 Hawthorn Woods Average
Hawthorn Woods Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hawthorn Woods
- ●One soil character for all of Hawthorn Woods
- ●Frost dates read at Hawthorn Woods's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawthorn Woods's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawthorn Woods
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawthorn Woods, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawthorn Woods averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawthorn Woods — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawthorn Woods average
How we know this about Hawthorn Woods
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 Hawthorn Woods’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 Hawthorn Woods
When does frost risk typically end in Hawthorn Woods?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawthorn Woods typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Hawthorn Woods?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawthorn Woods typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hawthorn Woods?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawthorn Woods sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 11, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hawthorn Woods?
The federal record around Hawthorn Woods is a meaningful one — 1,615 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (743), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Hawthorn Woods?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hawthorn Woods's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawthorn Woods'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 Hawthorn Woods’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hawthorn Woods's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,210 acres it covers and 1,615 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawthorn Woods's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hawthorn Woods's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 25 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,615 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawthorn Woods, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawthorn Woods's boundary and the 5,210 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hawthorn Woods's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hawthorn Woodslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hawthorn Woods's 5,210 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 Hawthorn Woods's 5,210 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawthorn Woods you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,210 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Hawthorn Woods-wide figureread your own land →