Hickory Hills, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hickory Hills, 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 Hickory Hills 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 Hickory Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hickory Hills — the short answer
Hickory Hills, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Hickory Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hickory Hills's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hickory Hills
Each reading below is measured for Hickory Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHickory Hills runs about 221 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
MeasuredHickory Hills 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 Hickory Hills is in
Hickory Hills sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hickory Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Hickory Hills
Every plant below cleared Hickory Hills's own zone 6a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hickory Hills?
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 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 10 — 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 Hickory Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Hickory Hills, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hickory Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hickory Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HICKORY HILLSPFAS · 550 ft
- Hickory Hills Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Amoco Oil 18725Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY 7384Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- AUTOZONE 2545Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Speedway #7384Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS #5684Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Speedway #4237Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SPEEDWAY 4237Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Hickory HIlls Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Amoco Ss#18879 Fac#26997Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Hickory Hills City OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hickory Hills'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 Hickory Hills.
Total Sites
4,204
within ~10 miles of Hickory Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
54 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hickory Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hickory Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hickory Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hickory Hills — PFAS (46 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (338 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 Hickory Hills
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 Hickory Hills average
Your land is one point inside Hickory Hills
Everything above resolves to Hickory Hills 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 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 Hickory Hills Average
Hickory Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hickory Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Hickory Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Hickory Hills's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hickory Hills's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hickory Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hickory Hills, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hickory Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hickory Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hickory Hills average
How we know this about Hickory Hills
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 Hickory Hills’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 Hickory Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Hickory Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Hills 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 Hickory Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Hills typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hickory Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hickory Hills sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 27, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hickory Hills?
The federal record around Hickory Hills is a meaningful one — 4,204 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,164), the nearest PFAS 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 Hickory Hills?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hickory Hills's scale — its 6a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hickory Hills'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 Hickory Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hickory Hills's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,820 acres it covers and 4,204 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hickory Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hickory Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 10 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,204 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hickory Hills, the closest PFAS record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hickory Hills's boundary and the 1,820 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hickory Hills's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hickory Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hickory Hills's 1,820 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 Hickory Hills's 1,820 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hickory Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,820 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Hickory Hills-wide figureread your own land →