Barrington Hills, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barrington Hills, 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 Barrington Hills 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 Barrington Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barrington Hills — the short answer
Barrington Hills, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 17K 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Barrington Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barrington Hills's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Barrington Hills's own 30-year record measures about 196 days between 28°F killing freezes — 38 days shorter than Cook County's ~234. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Barrington Hills's ~196-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barrington Hills
Each reading below is measured for Barrington Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarrington Hills runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBarrington Hills 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 Barrington Hills is in
Barrington Hills sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barrington Hills's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cook County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Barrington Hills
Every plant below cleared Barrington Hills's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barrington Hills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Barrington Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Barrington Hills, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barrington Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barrington Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Countryside Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Village of Barrington HillsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BARRINGTONPFAS · 2.0 mi
- HILL N DALE FARMBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Barrington Hills C CUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- I Kottke & Sons LandscapeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Woodland Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Sunny Hill Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WAMBERG ORG INC THEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Cuba Township Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Nite Shift Trans & RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- True North Location 2031Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barrington Hills'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 Barrington Hills.
Total Sites
1,994
within ~10 miles of Barrington Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barrington Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barrington Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barrington Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barrington Hills — Toxics Release Inventory (134 sites) and PFAS (17 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Barrington Hills
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 Barrington Hills average
Your land is one point inside Barrington Hills
Everything above resolves to Barrington Hills as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Barrington Hills Average
Barrington Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Barrington Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Barrington Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Barrington Hills's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barrington Hills's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barrington Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barrington Hills, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barrington Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barrington Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barrington Hills average
How we know this about Barrington Hills
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 Barrington Hills’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 Barrington Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Barrington Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barrington Hills 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 Barrington Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barrington Hills typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barrington Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barrington Hills sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barrington Hills?
The federal record around Barrington Hills is a meaningful one — 1,994 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (917), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Barrington Hills?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barrington Hills's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barrington Hills'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 Barrington Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barrington Hills's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,283 acres it covers and 1,994 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barrington Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barrington Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,994 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barrington Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barrington Hills's boundary and the 17,283 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Barrington Hills sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barrington Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barrington Hills's 17,283 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cook 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 Cook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barrington Hills's 17,283 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barrington Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,283 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Barrington Hills-wide figureread your own land →