North Utica, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Utica, 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 North Utica 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 North Utica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Utica — the short answer
North Utica, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- 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 5b is North Utica's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Utica's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Utica
Each reading below is measured for North Utica itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Utica runs about 211 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
MeasuredNorth Utica 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 North Utica is in
North Utica sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Utica's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in North Utica
Every plant below cleared North Utica's own zone 5b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Utica?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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.
What's on the federal record near North Utica
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Utica. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Blue Velvet TransportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Closed Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- XPO LOGISTICS FREIGHT, INC. - XLABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- XOP Logistics Freight, Inc. - XLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Casey's General Store #3686Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Expresslane #57Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ADVANCED ASPHALT COBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Matthiessen State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Starved Rock State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Starved Rock Bait & TackleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Utica Elevator CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- UTICA SILICA LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Utica'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 North Utica.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Utica
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Utica
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Utica, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Utica — Superfund (18 sites) and PFAS (4 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.
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 North Utica
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 North Utica average
Your land is one point inside North Utica
Everything above resolves to North Utica 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 North Utica Average
North Utica Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across North Utica
- ●One soil character for all of North Utica
- ●Frost dates read at North Utica's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Utica's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Utica
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Utica, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Utica averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Utica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Utica average
How we know this about North Utica
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 North Utica’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 North Utica
When does frost risk typically end in North Utica?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Utica typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in North Utica?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Utica typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Utica?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Utica sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 21, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Utica?
The federal record around North Utica runs heavier than most — 430 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (225), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 North Utica?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Utica's scale — its 5b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Utica'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 North Utica’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Utica's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,211 acres it covers and 430 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Utica's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Utica's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 4 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 430 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Utica, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Utica's boundary and the 2,211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Utica'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 North Utica's 2,211 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 North Utica's 2,211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Utica you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 North Utica-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisNorth Utica sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.