Brighton, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Brighton, 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 Brighton 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 Brighton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Brighton — the short answer
Brighton, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Brighton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brighton's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brighton
Each reading below is measured for Brighton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrighton runs about 225 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
MeasuredBrighton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Brighton is in
Brighton sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brighton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Macoupin County.
What Grows in Brighton
Every plant below cleared Brighton's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brighton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Brighton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Brighton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 214 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brighton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brighton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brighton TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Lee Dean WUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Werts Oil Co Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Village of BrightonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Circle T SteelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Brighton Amoco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Brighton ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 9205Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Casey's General Stores IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Rathgeb BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GHERE TUB AND SONS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Werts GaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brighton'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 Brighton.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Brighton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brighton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brighton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brighton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 144 sites within ~10 miles of Brighton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Brighton
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 Brighton average
Your land is one point inside Brighton
Everything above resolves to Brighton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Brighton Average
Brighton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Brighton
- ●One soil character for all of Brighton
- ●Frost dates read at Brighton's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brighton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brighton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brighton, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brighton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brighton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brighton average
How we know this about Brighton
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 Brighton’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 Brighton
When does frost risk typically end in Brighton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brighton typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Brighton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brighton typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brighton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brighton sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brighton?
The federal record around Brighton shows 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brighton?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brighton's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brighton'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 Brighton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brighton's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,229 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brighton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brighton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brighton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brighton's boundary and the 1,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brighton's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Brighton checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brighton's 1,229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Macoupin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Macoupin 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 Macoupin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brighton's 1,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brighton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,229 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brighton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBrighton sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.