Mendota, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mendota, 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 Mendota 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 Mendota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mendota — the short answer
Mendota, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 5b is Mendota's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mendota's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mendota
Each reading below is measured for Mendota itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMendota runs about 201 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
MeasuredMendota 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 Mendota is in
Mendota sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mendota's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in Mendota
Every plant below cleared Mendota's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mendota?
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 Oct 27 — 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 Mendota
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mendota. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEL MONTE CORPBrownfields · 450 ft
- DEL MONTE CORPToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- Del Monte Usa Plant 112Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PLANO MOLDING COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HCC INCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- RIDLEY USA INC D/B/A RIDLEY FEED INGREDIENTSToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- RIDLEY USA INC D/B/A RIDLEY FEED INGREDIENTSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Hulcher Emergency SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Road Ranger #140Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Continental Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Mendota Twp High School Dist280Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Rental ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mendota'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 Mendota.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mendota, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mendota — Underground Storage Tanks (100 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mendota
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 Mendota average
Your land is one point inside Mendota
Everything above resolves to Mendota 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 city 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 Mendota Average
Mendota Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Mendota
- ●One soil character for all of Mendota
- ●Frost dates read at Mendota's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mendota's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mendota
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mendota, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mendota averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mendota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mendota average
How we know this about Mendota
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mendota’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Mendota
When does frost risk typically end in Mendota?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mendota 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 Mendota?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mendota typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mendota?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mendota sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 13, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mendota?
The federal record around Mendota shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mendota?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mendota's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mendota'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 Mendota’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mendota's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,281 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mendota's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mendota's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 27 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mendota, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mendota's boundary and the 3,281 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mendota'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 Mendota's 3,281 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mendota's 3,281 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mendota you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,281 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mendota-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMendota sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides