Kinderhook, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Kinderhook, 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 Kinderhook 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 Kinderhook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kinderhook — the short answer
Kinderhook, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 517 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 517 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 Kinderhook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kinderhook's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kinderhook
Each reading below is measured for Kinderhook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKinderhook runs about 230 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
MeasuredKinderhook 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 Kinderhook is in
Kinderhook sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kinderhook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Kinderhook
Every plant below cleared Kinderhook's own zone 6b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kinderhook?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Kinderhook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kinderhook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M & H Trailer SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Village MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- West Pike Comm Unit Dist #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WEST PIKE JR/SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Pike County Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Epley Wrecker SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- EPLEYS WRECKER SVC INCBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Fesler EllisUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Hull Fertilizer SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Hull Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Old J&D CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Donald Epley ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kinderhook'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 Kinderhook.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of Kinderhook
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kinderhook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kinderhook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kinderhook, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Kinderhook. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Kinderhook
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 Kinderhook average
Your land is one point inside Kinderhook
Everything above resolves to Kinderhook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 517 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 Kinderhook Average
Kinderhook Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kinderhook
- ●One soil character for all of Kinderhook
- ●Frost dates read at Kinderhook's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kinderhook's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kinderhook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kinderhook, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kinderhook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kinderhook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kinderhook average
How we know this about Kinderhook
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 Kinderhook’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 Kinderhook
When does frost risk typically end in Kinderhook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kinderhook typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Kinderhook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kinderhook typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kinderhook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kinderhook sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 28, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kinderhook?
The federal record around Kinderhook shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Kinderhook?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kinderhook's scale — its 6b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kinderhook'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 Kinderhook’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kinderhook's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 517 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kinderhook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kinderhook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 11 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kinderhook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kinderhook's boundary and the 517 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kinderhook's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kinderhook's 517 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kinderhook's 517 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kinderhook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 517 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Kinderhook-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisKinderhook sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides