McCook, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McCook, 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 McCook 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 McCook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCook — the short answer
McCook, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- 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 6a is McCook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCook's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCook
Each reading below is measured for McCook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcCook runs about 225 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
MeasuredMcCook sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 McCook is in
McCook sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McCook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in McCook
Every plant below cleared McCook's own zone 6a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCook?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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.
Documented around McCook
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from McCook, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McCook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J M HUBER CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- US INK A DIVISION OF SUN CHEMICAL CORPBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ESTES EXPRESS LINES INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- DAMAGE CONTROL AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- IDOT Stevenson Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Kearney Electrical ResearchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Estes Express LinesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PROGRESS RAIL LOCOMOTIVE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- PROGRESS RAIL LOCOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- HOLLANDBrownfields · 2200 ft
- GRAYHILL INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- GRAYHILL INCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCook'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 McCook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McCook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCook, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McCook — Toxics Release Inventory (537 sites) and PFAS (56 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in McCook
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 McCook average
Your land is one point inside McCook
Everything above resolves to McCook 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 McCook Average
McCook Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across McCook
- ●One soil character for all of McCook
- ●Frost dates read at McCook's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCook's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCook, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCook averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCook average
How we know this about McCook
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 McCook’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 McCook
When does frost risk typically end in McCook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCook typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in McCook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCook typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCook sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCook?
The federal record around McCook is a meaningful one — 5,812 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,942), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 McCook?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McCook's scale — its 6a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCook'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 McCook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McCook's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,673 acres it covers and 5,812 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,812 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCook, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCook's boundary and the 1,673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McCook's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McCooklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McCook's 1,673 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cook 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 Cook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McCook's 1,673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,673 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 McCook-wide figureread your own land →
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