Midlothian, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Midlothian, 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 Midlothian 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 Midlothian — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midlothian — the short answer
Midlothian, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- 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 Midlothian's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midlothian's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midlothian
Each reading below is measured for Midlothian itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMidlothian runs about 220 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
MeasuredMidlothian 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 Midlothian is in
Midlothian sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Midlothian's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Midlothian
Every plant below cleared Midlothian's own zone 6a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Midlothian?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Midlothian
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Midlothian, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Midlothian
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midlothian. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEINEKEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Alharsha Brothers, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 4978Brownfields · 1800 ft
- Firestone Store #3439/016667Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 7-Eleven Food Store #22956Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Village of MidlothianUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WATSON MOTOR SPORTSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Midlothian Amstar, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Discount Auto Mart, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Midlothian GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WELSCH READY MIX INCToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- Vans Material Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midlothian'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 Midlothian.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midlothian
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midlothian
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Midlothian, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Midlothian — Superfund (63 sites) and PFAS (39 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Midlothian
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 Midlothian average
Your land is one point inside Midlothian
Everything above resolves to Midlothian 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 Midlothian Average
Midlothian Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Midlothian
- ●One soil character for all of Midlothian
- ●Frost dates read at Midlothian's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midlothian's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midlothian
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midlothian, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midlothian averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midlothian — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midlothian average
How we know this about Midlothian
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 Midlothian’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 Midlothian
When does frost risk typically end in Midlothian?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midlothian 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 Midlothian?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midlothian typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midlothian?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midlothian sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 26, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midlothian?
The federal record around Midlothian runs heavier than most — 3,381 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,755), the nearest Brownfields 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 Midlothian?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Midlothian's scale — its 6a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midlothian'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 Midlothian’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Midlothian's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,804 acres it covers and 3,381 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midlothian's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Midlothian's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 9 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,381 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midlothian, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midlothian's boundary and the 1,804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Midlothian's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Midlothianlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Midlothian's 1,804 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 Midlothian's 1,804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midlothian you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,804 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Midlothian-wide figureread your own land →
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