Lake Holiday, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lake Holiday, 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 Lake Holiday 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 Lake Holiday — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Holiday — the short answer
Lake Holiday, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Lake Holiday's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Holiday's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Holiday
Each reading below is measured for Lake Holiday itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Holiday runs about 198 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
MeasuredLake Holiday 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 Lake Holiday is in
Lake Holiday sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Holiday's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in Lake Holiday
Every plant below cleared Lake Holiday's own zone 5b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Holiday?
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 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 Lake Holiday
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Lake Holiday, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Holiday
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Holiday. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lakewood Mini - MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TSA ENTERPRISES DBA LAKE HOLIDAY MARINABrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Lake Holiday MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- IMPERIAL MARBLE CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- Imperial Marble CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TITZEL, ARTHUR & JOYCEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Village of SomonaukUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Somonauk Auto Sales IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Casey's General Store #2248Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Bud's Citgo Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Public Wirks GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Baptist Temple Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Holiday'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 Lake Holiday.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Lake Holiday
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Holiday
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Holiday
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Holiday, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Holiday — PFAS (3 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Holiday
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 Lake Holiday average
Your land is one point inside Lake Holiday
Everything above resolves to Lake Holiday 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 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 Lake Holiday Average
Lake Holiday Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lake Holiday
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Holiday
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Holiday's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Holiday's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Holiday
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Holiday, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Holiday averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Holiday — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Holiday average
How we know this about Lake Holiday
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 Lake Holiday’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 Lake Holiday
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Holiday?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Holiday 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 Lake Holiday?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Holiday 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 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Holiday?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Holiday sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 11, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Holiday?
The federal record around Lake Holiday is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Lake Holiday?
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 Lake Holiday's scale — its 5b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Holiday'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 Lake Holiday’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Holiday's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,243 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Holiday's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Holiday's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 25 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Holiday, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Holiday's boundary and the 2,243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Holiday's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Holidaylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Holiday's 2,243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Holiday's 2,243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Holiday you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Lake Holiday-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLake Holiday sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides