Paw Paw, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paw Paw, 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 Paw Paw 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 Paw Paw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paw Paw — the short answer
Paw Paw, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 383 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 383 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 Paw Paw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paw Paw's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paw Paw
Each reading below is measured for Paw Paw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaw Paw runs about 192 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
MeasuredPaw Paw 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 Paw Paw is in
Paw Paw sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paw Paw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Paw Paw
Every plant below cleared Paw Paw's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paw Paw?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Paw Paw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paw Paw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Casey's General Stores #1590Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Enllehart IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Paw Paw SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Pfeifer's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Paw Paw SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PAW PAW SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Township GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Gilmore FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Vigoro Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Vacant Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- SHEBBONA LAKE STATE PARKBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- Lee Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paw Paw'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 Paw Paw.
Total Sites
61
within ~10 miles of Paw Paw
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paw Paw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paw Paw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paw Paw, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Paw Paw. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Paw Paw
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 Paw Paw average
Your land is one point inside Paw Paw
Everything above resolves to Paw Paw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 383 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 Paw Paw Average
Paw Paw Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Paw Paw
- ●One soil character for all of Paw Paw
- ●Frost dates read at Paw Paw's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paw Paw's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paw Paw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paw Paw, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paw Paw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paw Paw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paw Paw average
How we know this about Paw Paw
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 Paw Paw’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 Paw Paw
When does frost risk typically end in Paw Paw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paw Paw typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Paw Paw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paw Paw typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paw Paw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paw Paw sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 8, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paw Paw?
The federal record around Paw Paw shows 61 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Paw Paw?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paw Paw's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paw Paw'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 Paw Paw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paw Paw's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 383 acres it covers and 61 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paw Paw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paw Paw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 22 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 61 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paw Paw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paw Paw's boundary and the 383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paw Paw'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 Paw Paw's 383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paw Paw's 383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paw Paw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 383 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Paw Paw-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisPaw Paw sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.