Regional guide

Chicago Area Illinois Vegetable Planting Guide

Illinois Extension guide for Chicago-area gardeners using Northern Illinois planting windows with an urban heat caveat against Central Illinois dates.

Climate signals

• Illinois Extension lists Northern Illinois median spring frost-free dates as April 8-29 and Central Illinois median dates as April 8-15.
• Illinois Extension says that due to the urban heat effect, the Chicago area has a warmer zone than the rest of Northern Illinois and may be closer to central Illinois dates.
• The source says last freezes can happen before or after the median frost-free date ranges, so Chicago gardeners should still check frost-date maps, plant tags, and seed packets.
• The Illinois planting chart says two dates mean the crop can be planted twice for both a summer and fall crop.
• The source separates annual vegetable timing from USDA hardiness zones because zones mostly apply to perennial landscape plants.

Planning notes

• Use the Northern Illinois table as the conservative starting point for greater Chicago gardens, then compare Central Illinois rows for warmer urban-core and near-lake microclimates instead of assuming one metro-wide date.
• For bush beans, compare Northern Illinois May 24 to June 30 or July 30 to Aug. 14 with Central Illinois May 10 to June 15 or July 15 to 30.
• For tomatoes, compare Northern Illinois May 24 to June 15 with Central Illinois May 10 to June 1, and wait for warm-season transplant conditions rather than planting by hardiness zone.
• For lettuce, compare Northern Illinois April 15 to May 15 and July 15 to Sept. 15 with Central Illinois April 1 to 30 and July 1 to Aug. 31.
• Use cool-season rows such as spinach, radish, mustard, turnip, broccoli, cabbage, kale, beets, carrots, and chard for spring and fall planning, then check maturity days against first-frost risk.
• Use these priority catalog links as crop-level examples for the Illinois Extension timing table, not Illinois Extension cultivar recommendations.

Catalog crop examples

These catalog entries match crops covered by the regional timing source; variety-specific details remain tied to each seed entry's own source.

• Provider Bush Bean Vegetable · Warm · 50 days
• Roma Tomato Vegetable · Warm · 76 days
• Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
• Bloomsdale Spinach Vegetable · Cool · 42 days
• French Breakfast Radish Vegetable · Cool · 28 days
• Southern Giant Curled Mustard Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
• Purple Top White Globe Turnip Vegetable · Cool · 55 days
• Waltham 29 Broccoli Vegetable · Cool · 74 days
• Golden Acre Cabbage Vegetable · Cool · 64 days
• Lacinato Kale Vegetable · Cool · 60 days
• Detroit Dark Red Beet Vegetable · Cool · 58 days
• Danvers 126 Carrot Vegetable · Shoulder · 70 days
• Bright Lights Swiss Chard Vegetable · Shoulder · 55 days
• Golden Bantam Sweet Corn Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
• Marketmore 76 Cucumber Vegetable · Warm · 58 days
• Black Beauty Eggplant Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
• California Wonder Pepper Vegetable · Warm · 72 days
• Small Sugar Pumpkin Vegetable · Warm · 100 days
• Waltham Butternut Squash Vegetable · Warm · 95 days
• Sugar Baby Watermelon Vegetable · Warm · 80 days

Related regional guides

• Illinois Three-Region Vegetable Garden An Illinois vegetable guide for Northern, Central, and Southern planting-date columns, frost-free ranges, and seasonal crop timing.
• McHenry County Illinois Planting Guide Illinois Extension McHenry County guide for seven vegetable planting windows, transplant labels, and fall harvest timing.

Source: Illinois Extension when to plant