Woodridge, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Woodridge, 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 Woodridge 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 Woodridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woodridge — the short answer
Woodridge, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- 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 6a is Woodridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodridge's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodridge
Each reading below is measured for Woodridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodridge runs about 208 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
MeasuredWoodridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Woodridge is in
Woodridge sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from DuPage County.
What Grows in Woodridge
Every plant below cleared Woodridge's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodridge?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Woodridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Woodridge, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woodridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bolingbrook District HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COMMONWEALTH EDISONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Surety Builders IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BED BATH & BEYOND 1064Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Woodridge Propery, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Woodridge MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JEWEL OSCO 3062Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- WILTON INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Wilton Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Costco Gasoline #1088Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COSTCO WHOLESALE - BOLINGBROOKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodridge'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 Woodridge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodridge, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Woodridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Woodridge
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 Woodridge average
Your land is one point inside Woodridge
Everything above resolves to Woodridge 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 Woodridge Average
Woodridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Woodridge
- ●One soil character for all of Woodridge
- ●Frost dates read at Woodridge's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodridge's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodridge, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodridge average
How we know this about Woodridge
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 Woodridge’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 Woodridge
When does frost risk typically end in Woodridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodridge typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Woodridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodridge typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodridge sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 20, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodridge?
The federal record around Woodridge runs heavier than most — 2,105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (999), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Woodridge?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodridge's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodridge'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 Woodridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woodridge's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,164 acres it covers and 2,105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 3 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodridge's boundary and the 6,164 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodridge's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woodridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodridge's 6,164 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DuPage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DuPage 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 DuPage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodridge's 6,164 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,164 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Woodridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWoodridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides