Long Point, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Long Point, 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 Point 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 Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Long Point — the short answer
Long Point, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 118 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)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 118 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 Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Point's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Point
Each reading below is measured for Long Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Point runs about 205 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 Point 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 Point is in
Long Point sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Long Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston County.
What Grows in Long Point
Every plant below cleared Long Point's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Point?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Oct 31 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Long Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wheeler Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Folkerts Transfer IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Livingston Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Nicor Gas - AnconaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NICOR GASBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Ancona Grain IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Luckey Trucking, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Dana Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- NICOR ANCONA GARFIELDBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- Salisbury Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 29N 2E-15.8cNitrate · 5.4 mi
- Hoge BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Point'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 Point.
Total Sites
158
within ~10 miles of Long Point
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Long Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Point, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 103 sites within ~10 miles of Long Point. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Long Point
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 Point average
Your land is one point inside Long Point
Everything above resolves to Long Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 118 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 Point Average
Long Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Long Point
- ●One soil character for all of Long Point
- ●Frost dates read at Long Point's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Point's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Point, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Point average
How we know this about Long Point
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 Point’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 Point
When does frost risk typically end in Long Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Point 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 Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Point typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Point sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Point?
The federal record around Long Point is a meaningful one — 158 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Point?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Long Point's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Point'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 Point’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Long Point's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 118 acres it covers and 158 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Point, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Point's boundary and the 118 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Long Point's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Point's 118 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Long Point's 118 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 118 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLong Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.