Northlake, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Northlake, 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 Northlake 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 Northlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Northlake — the short answer
Northlake, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Northlake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northlake's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northlake
Each reading below is measured for Northlake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthlake runs about 215 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
MeasuredNorthlake 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 Northlake is in
Northlake sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Northlake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Northlake
Every plant below cleared Northlake's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Northlake?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Northlake
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Northlake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Northlake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northlake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gte Communication Systems CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- A.G. COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMSToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- NORTHLAKEPFAS · 1500 ft
- LEYDEN TWSP WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1500 ft
- Municipal GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AMERICAN BOTTLING COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SARATOGA SPECIALTIES CHEMICAL DIVToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- POWELL ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- DELTA-UNIBUS CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- WALGREENS 3995Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #1919Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Northlake Quik ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Northlake'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 Northlake.
Total Sites
6,489
within ~10 miles of Northlake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
57 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northlake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northlake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Northlake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Northlake — Toxics Release Inventory (662 sites) and PFAS (54 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Northlake
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 Northlake average
Your land is one point inside Northlake
Everything above resolves to Northlake 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 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 Northlake Average
Northlake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Northlake
- ●One soil character for all of Northlake
- ●Frost dates read at Northlake's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northlake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northlake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northlake, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northlake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northlake average
How we know this about Northlake
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 Northlake’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 Northlake
When does frost risk typically end in Northlake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northlake typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Northlake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northlake typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northlake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northlake sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northlake?
The federal record around Northlake is a meaningful one — 6,489 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,058), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Northlake?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northlake's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northlake'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 Northlake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Northlake's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,033 acres it covers and 6,489 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northlake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northlake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 5 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,489 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northlake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northlake's boundary and the 2,033 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northlake's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Northlakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Northlake's 2,033 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 Northlake's 2,033 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northlake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,033 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Northlake-wide figureread your own land →