Gardening in Chicago
Illinois · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands · hardiness zone 6a
Now
19°C · Overcast
Today
21° / 11°
Soil 6 cm
19°C
First frost
~48 days (Nov 1)
The kindest day for transplanting there is, and the safest for sowing.
- Ruby-throated hummingbirdbest now — Feeding hardest in the first and last hour — it burns through the night's reserves by dawn and must refuel before dark.
- Green lacewingbest now — Adults fly at dusk and through the night; the larvae hunt around the clock and do the real work.
In the garden now · September
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Chicago, Illinois in September. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMay–OctMonarch butterfly
Danaus plexippus
Orange with heavy black veins and a white-spotted black border. The caterpillar is banded yellow, white and black.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Christine Young · CC BY 4.0
PollinatorMay–SepRuby-throated hummingbird
Archilochus colubris
Tiny, iridescent green above; the male has a black-looking throat that flares ruby in the right light.
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Chicago, Illinois
The sky over the garden
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 30m of light
Sunrise
06:30
Solar noon
12:45
Sunset
19:00
A month from now the day will be 1h 23m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
Right now · Chicago, Illinois
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Quiet right now
Frost
192 frost-free days
Typically Apr 23 to Nov 1 here. Coldest night in the next week: 11.1 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
19.2 °C
Warm enough for beans, corn, squash, cucumber and transplanted tomato and pepper. Roots run hard at this temperature.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
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