Palatine, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Palatine, 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 Palatine 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 Palatine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Palatine — the short answer
Palatine, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Palatine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palatine's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palatine
Each reading below is measured for Palatine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalatine runs about 203 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
MeasuredPalatine 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 Palatine is in
Palatine sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Palatine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Palatine
Every plant below cleared Palatine's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palatine?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Palatine
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Palatine, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Palatine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palatine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Palatine Auto ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bucky's Express #420Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ADVANCED AUTO TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 42N10E-15.3f1Nitrate · 1900 ft
- Palatine Township Road DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Little Sisters Of The PoorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Village of PalatineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Glander Paving CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- V L Bergman TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Bajanaki Properties, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Palatine Park DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PALATINE PARK DISTRICTBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palatine'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 Palatine.
Total Sites
3,196
within ~10 miles of Palatine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palatine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palatine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palatine, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 299 sites within ~10 miles of Palatine. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Palatine
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 Palatine average
Your land is one point inside Palatine
Everything above resolves to Palatine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Palatine Average
Palatine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Palatine
- ●One soil character for all of Palatine
- ●Frost dates read at Palatine's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palatine's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palatine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palatine, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palatine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palatine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palatine average
How we know this about Palatine
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 Palatine’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 Palatine
When does frost risk typically end in Palatine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palatine typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Palatine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palatine typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palatine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palatine sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 16, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palatine?
The federal record around Palatine is a meaningful one — 3,196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,373), 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 Palatine?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palatine's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palatine'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 Palatine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Palatine's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,036 acres it covers and 3,196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palatine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palatine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 30 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palatine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palatine's boundary and the 9,036 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palatine's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Palatinelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palatine's 9,036 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 Palatine's 9,036 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palatine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,036 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 Palatine-wide figureread your own land →