Wadsworth, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wadsworth, 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 Wadsworth 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 Wadsworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wadsworth — the short answer
Wadsworth, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 6K 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Wadsworth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wadsworth's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wadsworth
Each reading below is measured for Wadsworth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWadsworth runs about 201 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
MeasuredWadsworth 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 Wadsworth is in
Wadsworth sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wadsworth's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lake County is mostly Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Wadsworth
Every plant below cleared Wadsworth's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wadsworth?
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 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Wadsworth
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Wadsworth, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wadsworth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wadsworth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Taylor Wood ShavingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Contractor Exc IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Soo Line RailroadUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FERRITE INTL COBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Wadsworth Crossing BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Tri Star Gas & Food Mart, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- The Corner Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- The Shanty RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Super Mart & Liquor, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ISTHA PLAZA 21 STPBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Van Patten Forest PreserveUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wadsworth'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 Wadsworth.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wadsworth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wadsworth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wadsworth, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wadsworth — Superfund (27 sites) and PFAS (13 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wadsworth
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 Wadsworth average
Your land is one point inside Wadsworth
Everything above resolves to Wadsworth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Wadsworth Average
Wadsworth Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wadsworth
- ●One soil character for all of Wadsworth
- ●Frost dates read at Wadsworth's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wadsworth's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wadsworth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wadsworth, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wadsworth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wadsworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wadsworth average
How we know this about Wadsworth
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 Wadsworth’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 Wadsworth
When does frost risk typically end in Wadsworth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wadsworth 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 Wadsworth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wadsworth 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wadsworth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wadsworth sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 16, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wadsworth?
The federal record around Wadsworth runs heavier than most — 1,410 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (692), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Wadsworth?
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 Wadsworth's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wadsworth'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 Wadsworth’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wadsworth's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,300 acres it covers and 1,410 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wadsworth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wadsworth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 30 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,410 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wadsworth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wadsworth's boundary and the 6,300 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wadsworth sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wadsworthlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wadsworth's 6,300 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 Wadsworth's 6,300 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wadsworth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,300 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Wadsworth-wide figureread your own land →