Lorenzo, 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 Lorenzo, 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 Lorenzo 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 Lorenzo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lorenzo — the short answer
Lorenzo, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 198 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 198 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 Lorenzo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lorenzo's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lorenzo
Each reading below is measured for Lorenzo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLorenzo runs about 202 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
MeasuredLorenzo 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 Lorenzo is in
Lorenzo sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lorenzo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Will County.
What Grows in Lorenzo
Every plant below cleared Lorenzo's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lorenzo?
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 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 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Lorenzo
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Lorenzo, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lorenzo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lorenzo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SJK1, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC HMW1Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Petro Stopping CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- NGPL HERSCHER DISCHARGE REROUTEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Mobil Travel PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OZINGA READY-MIX CONCRETE - WILMINGTONToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- Des Plaines Conservation AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NICOR GASBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Des Plaines Game FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Three Rivers Marine Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Harborside MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- General Electric Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lorenzo'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 Lorenzo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lorenzo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lorenzo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lorenzo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lorenzo — Superfund (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (39 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lorenzo
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 Lorenzo average
Your land is one point inside Lorenzo
Everything above resolves to Lorenzo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 198 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 Lorenzo Average
Lorenzo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lorenzo
- ●One soil character for all of Lorenzo
- ●Frost dates read at Lorenzo's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lorenzo's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lorenzo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lorenzo, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lorenzo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lorenzo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lorenzo average
How we know this about Lorenzo
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 Lorenzo’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 Lorenzo
When does frost risk typically end in Lorenzo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lorenzo 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 Lorenzo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lorenzo typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lorenzo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lorenzo sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lorenzo?
The federal record around Lorenzo runs heavier than most — 362 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lorenzo?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lorenzo's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lorenzo'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 Lorenzo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lorenzo's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 198 acres it covers and 362 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lorenzo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lorenzo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 362 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lorenzo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lorenzo's boundary and the 198 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lorenzo's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lorenzolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lorenzo's 198 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 Lorenzo's 198 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lorenzo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 198 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 Lorenzo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisLorenzo sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides