Sammons Point, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sammons Point, 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 Sammons Point 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 Sammons Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sammons Point — the short answer
Sammons Point, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Sammons Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sammons Point's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sammons Point
Each reading below is measured for Sammons Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSammons Point runs about 204 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
MeasuredSammons Point 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 Sammons Point is in
Sammons Point sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sammons Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kankakee County.
What Grows in Sammons Point
Every plant below cleared Sammons Point's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sammons Point?
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 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 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Sammons Point
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sammons Point checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 41 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sammons Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sammons Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KANKAKEE RDFBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Kankakee Industrial DisposalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Dietrich Gary FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Kankakee Valley Airport AuthorityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CRESCO LABSBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- A N Webber IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Pac TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Love's Travel Stop #395Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- LINCOLNLAND COATINGSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Army Aviation Support-KankakeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Chebanse BP Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 4323Brownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sammons Point'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 Sammons Point.
Total Sites
411
within ~10 miles of Sammons Point
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
30 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sammons Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sammons Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sammons Point, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Sammons Point. 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 Sammons Point
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 Sammons Point average
Your land is one point inside Sammons Point
Everything above resolves to Sammons Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sammons Point Average
Sammons Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sammons Point
- ●One soil character for all of Sammons Point
- ●Frost dates read at Sammons Point's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sammons Point's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sammons Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sammons Point, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sammons Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sammons Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sammons Point average
How we know this about Sammons Point
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 Sammons Point’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 Sammons Point
When does frost risk typically end in Sammons Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sammons Point 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 Sammons Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sammons Point typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sammons Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sammons Point sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sammons Point?
The federal record around Sammons Point is a meaningful one — 411 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (231), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Sammons Point?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sammons Point's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sammons Point'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 Sammons Point’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sammons Point's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,185 acres it covers and 411 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sammons Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sammons Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 411 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sammons Point, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sammons Point's boundary and the 1,185 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sammons Point's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sammons Point checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sammons Point's 1,185 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kankakee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kankakee 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 Kankakee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sammons Point's 1,185 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sammons Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,185 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Sammons Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisSammons Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides