Ingalls Park, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ingalls 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 Ingalls 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 Ingalls Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ingalls Park — the short answer
Ingalls Park, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 710 acres of town.
- 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 710 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 Ingalls Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ingalls Park's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ingalls Park
Each reading below is measured for Ingalls Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIngalls Park runs about 218 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
MeasuredIngalls 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 Ingalls Park is in
Ingalls Park sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ingalls Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Will County.
What Grows in Ingalls Park
Every plant below cleared Ingalls Park's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ingalls Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Ingalls Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Ingalls Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ingalls Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ingalls Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Art PaulUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Gallagher AsphaltUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTHWEST OIL INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Joliet Lumber & Hardware CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Former Kittle PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7 ELEVEN STORE 27947Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- 7-Eleven #27947Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CORSETTI STRUCTURAL STEELBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Interstate ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- INTERSTATE AMOCO SVCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- I-80 Mobil, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ingalls 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 Ingalls Park.
Total Sites
1,211
within ~10 miles of Ingalls Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ingalls Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ingalls Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ingalls Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ingalls Park — Superfund (17 sites) and PFAS (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ingalls 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 Ingalls Park average
Your land is one point inside Ingalls Park
Everything above resolves to Ingalls Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 710 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 Ingalls Park Average
Ingalls Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ingalls Park
- ●One soil character for all of Ingalls Park
- ●Frost dates read at Ingalls Park's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ingalls Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ingalls Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ingalls Park, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ingalls Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ingalls Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ingalls Park average
How we know this about Ingalls 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 Ingalls 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 Ingalls Park
When does frost risk typically end in Ingalls Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ingalls Park 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 Ingalls Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ingalls Park typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ingalls Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ingalls Park sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 24, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ingalls Park?
The federal record around Ingalls Park is a meaningful one — 1,211 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (559), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ingalls Park?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ingalls Park's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ingalls 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 Ingalls Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ingalls Park's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 710 acres it covers and 1,211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ingalls Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ingalls Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 7 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ingalls Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ingalls Park's boundary and the 710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ingalls Park's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ingalls Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ingalls Park's 710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Will County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Will 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 Will County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ingalls Park's 710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ingalls 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 710 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ingalls Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisIngalls Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides