Melrose Park, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Melrose Park, 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 Melrose Park 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 Melrose Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melrose Park — the short answer
Melrose Park, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Melrose Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melrose Park's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melrose Park
Each reading below is measured for Melrose Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelrose Park runs about 221 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
MeasuredMelrose Park 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 Melrose Park is in
Melrose Park sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melrose Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Melrose Park
Every plant below cleared Melrose Park's own zone 6a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melrose Park?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Melrose Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Melrose Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Melrose Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melrose Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pitt Des Moines, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MECH-TRONICS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- MECH-TRONICS CORPBrownfields · 300 ft
- Precision Printing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MELROSE PARKPFAS · 550 ft
- CHASE & CHUDIKBrownfields · 650 ft
- Jay Tee Screw Machine Product CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- JAY-TEE SCREW MACHINE PRODUCTS COToxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- DAVID SCOTT MELROSE LLCToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- Midwest PolychemUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HANDY BUTTON MACHINE COToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- Handy Button Machine CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melrose Park'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 Melrose Park.
Total Sites
7,451
within ~10 miles of Melrose Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
87 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melrose Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melrose Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melrose Park, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 810 sites within ~10 miles of Melrose Park. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Melrose Park
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 Melrose Park average
Your land is one point inside Melrose Park
Everything above resolves to Melrose Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Melrose Park Average
Melrose Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Melrose Park
- ●One soil character for all of Melrose Park
- ●Frost dates read at Melrose Park's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melrose Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melrose Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melrose Park, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melrose Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melrose Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melrose Park average
How we know this about Melrose Park
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 Melrose Park’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 Melrose Park
When does frost risk typically end in Melrose Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melrose Park typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Melrose Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melrose Park typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melrose Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melrose Park sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 27, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melrose Park?
The federal record around Melrose Park is a meaningful one — 7,451 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,507), 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 Melrose Park?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melrose Park's scale — its 6a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melrose Park'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 Melrose Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Melrose Park's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,786 acres it covers and 7,451 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melrose Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melrose Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 10 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,451 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melrose Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melrose Park's boundary and the 2,786 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melrose Park's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Melrose Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Melrose Park's 2,786 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 Melrose Park's 2,786 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melrose Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,786 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 Melrose Park-wide figureread your own land →