Long Grove, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Long Grove, 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 Long Grove 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 Long Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Long Grove — the short answer
Long Grove, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Long Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Grove's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Grove
Each reading below is measured for Long Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Grove runs about 206 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
MeasuredLong Grove 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 Long Grove is in
Long Grove sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Long Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Long Grove
Every plant below cleared Long Grove's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Grove?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Long Grove
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Long Grove, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Long Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEMPERBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Twin Orchard Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- C F IndustriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Mel's MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Red Oaks Fine FurnitureUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FENWAL INC - A FRESENIUS KABI COBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Vacant ResidentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 8946Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- Kemper Lkes Office Property Owner, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Hillcrest Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Abbott Agriculturial Reseach CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Alden - Long Grove Rehab & Health Care CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Grove'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 Long Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Long Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Long Grove — PFAS (23 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (159 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Long Grove
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 Long Grove average
Your land is one point inside Long Grove
Everything above resolves to Long Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Long Grove Average
Long Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Long Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Long Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Long Grove's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Grove's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Grove, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Grove average
How we know this about Long Grove
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 Long Grove’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 Long Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Long Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Grove typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Long Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Grove typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Grove sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 18, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Grove?
The federal record around Long Grove is a meaningful one — 2,249 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,043), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Long Grove?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Long Grove's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Grove'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 Long Grove’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Long Grove's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,928 acres it covers and 2,249 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 1 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,249 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Grove, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Grove's boundary and the 7,928 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Long Grove's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Long Grovelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Grove's 7,928 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 Long Grove's 7,928 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,928 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Long Grove-wide figureread your own land →