Burtons Bridge, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burtons Bridge, 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 Burtons Bridge 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 Burtons Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burtons Bridge — the short answer
Burtons Bridge, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 79 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 79 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 Burtons Bridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burtons Bridge's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burtons Bridge
Each reading below is measured for Burtons Bridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurtons Bridge runs about 187 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
MeasuredBurtons Bridge 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 Burtons Bridge is in
Burtons Bridge sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burtons Bridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from McHenry County.
What Grows in Burtons Bridge
Every plant below cleared Burtons Bridge's own zone 5b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burtons Bridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Burtons Bridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Burtons Bridge, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Burtons Bridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burtons Bridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- De Mar Marine Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 44N9E-20.7cNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 44N 9E-30.1fNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 44N9E-25.1d (WAUC-02-12)Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- U.S. Citgo Oil, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- COLONIAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SUN ELECTRICToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- OZINGA BROS INC-HOLIDAY HILLS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- Island Lake Sanitary DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Don Bass Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Pesz Joseph MUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AMERICAS AUTO SVCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burtons Bridge'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 Burtons Bridge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burtons Bridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burtons Bridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burtons Bridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Burtons Bridge — PFAS (17 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (82 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Burtons Bridge
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 Burtons Bridge average
Your land is one point inside Burtons Bridge
Everything above resolves to Burtons Bridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 79 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 Burtons Bridge Average
Burtons Bridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Burtons Bridge
- ●One soil character for all of Burtons Bridge
- ●Frost dates read at Burtons Bridge's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burtons Bridge's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burtons Bridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burtons Bridge, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burtons Bridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burtons Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burtons Bridge average
How we know this about Burtons Bridge
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 Burtons Bridge’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 Burtons Bridge
When does frost risk typically end in Burtons Bridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burtons Bridge typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Burtons Bridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burtons Bridge typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burtons Bridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burtons Bridge sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burtons Bridge?
The federal record around Burtons Bridge runs heavier than most — 1,240 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (588), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Burtons Bridge?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burtons Bridge's scale — its 5b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burtons Bridge'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 Burtons Bridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Burtons Bridge's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 79 acres it covers and 1,240 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burtons Bridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burtons Bridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,240 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burtons Bridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burtons Bridge's boundary and the 79 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burtons Bridge's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Burtons Bridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burtons Bridge's 79 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McHenry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McHenry 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 McHenry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burtons Bridge's 79 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burtons Bridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 79 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Burtons Bridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBurtons Bridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides