Old Mill Creek, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Old Mill Creek, 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 Old Mill Creek 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 Old Mill Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Mill Creek — the short answer
Old Mill Creek, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Old Mill Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Mill Creek's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Mill Creek
Each reading below is measured for Old Mill Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Mill Creek runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOld Mill Creek 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 Old Mill Creek is in
Old Mill Creek sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Old Mill Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Old Mill Creek
Every plant below cleared Old Mill Creek's own zone 5b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Mill Creek?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Old Mill Creek
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Old Mill Creek, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Old Mill Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Mill Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tempel FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Millburn CC School Dist 24Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ISTHA PLAZA 21 STPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BP Am Pm Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BONNER FARM HOUSEBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Tri Star Gas & Food Mart, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Wadsworth Crossing BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- The Shanty RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- The Corner Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Van Patten Forest PreserveUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HANDI FOILBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Grandwood Pk Wasterwtr PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Old Mill Creek'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 Old Mill Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Old Mill Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Mill Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Old Mill Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Old Mill Creek — PFAS (19 sites) and Superfund (19 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Old Mill Creek
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 Old Mill Creek average
Your land is one point inside Old Mill Creek
Everything above resolves to Old Mill Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Old Mill Creek Average
Old Mill Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Old Mill Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Old Mill Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Old Mill Creek's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Mill Creek's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Mill Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Mill Creek, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Mill Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Mill Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Mill Creek average
How we know this about Old Mill Creek
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 Old Mill Creek’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 Old Mill Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Old Mill Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Mill Creek typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Old Mill Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Mill Creek 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 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Mill Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Mill Creek sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Mill Creek?
The federal record around Old Mill Creek runs heavier than most — 1,284 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (647), 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 Old Mill Creek?
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 Old Mill Creek's scale — its 5b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Mill Creek'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 Old Mill Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Old Mill Creek's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,826 acres it covers and 1,284 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Mill Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Mill Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,284 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Mill Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Mill Creek's boundary and the 6,826 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Mill Creek's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Old Mill Creeklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Old Mill Creek's 6,826 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Old Mill Creek's 6,826 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Mill Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,826 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 Old Mill Creek-wide figureread your own land →