Lake Summerset, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Summerset, 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 Summerset 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 Summerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Summerset — the short answer
Lake Summerset, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Lake Summerset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Summerset's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Summerset
Each reading below is measured for Lake Summerset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Summerset runs about 190 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 Summerset sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Summerset is in
Lake Summerset sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Summerset's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Winnebago County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lake Summerset
Every plant below cleared Lake Summerset's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Summerset?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Lake Summerset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Summerset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lake Summerset Assoc, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Mr. Quick's Lakie View MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Lake Summerset Maint FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Wishard RonaldUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Johnson Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- T R MACHINE INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Rogers Ready Mix and Materials IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ACF ORGANICSBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- Cecil's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Kinney's Pump HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Kinney Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Spelman SuncocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Summerset'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 Summerset.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Lake Summerset
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Summerset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Summerset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Summerset, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Summerset — CAFO (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Summerset
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 Summerset average
Your land is one point inside Lake Summerset
Everything above resolves to Lake Summerset as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Summerset Average
Lake Summerset Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lake Summerset
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Summerset
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Summerset's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Summerset's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Summerset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Summerset, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Summerset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Summerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Summerset average
How we know this about Lake Summerset
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 Summerset’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 Summerset
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Summerset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Summerset typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Lake Summerset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Summerset typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Summerset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Summerset sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Summerset?
The federal record around Lake Summerset shows 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake Summerset?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Summerset's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Summerset'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 Summerset’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Summerset's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,356 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Summerset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Summerset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Summerset, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Summerset's boundary and the 1,356 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lake Summerset sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Summerset's 1,356 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Winnebago County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Winnebago 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 Winnebago County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Summerset's 1,356 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Summerset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,356 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Summerset-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLake Summerset sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides