Kingston, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kingston, 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 Kingston 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 Kingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kingston — the short answer
Kingston, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 630 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 630 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 Kingston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingston's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kingston
Each reading below is measured for Kingston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKingston runs about 194 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
MeasuredKingston 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 Kingston is in
Kingston sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kingston's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeKalb County.
What Grows in Kingston
Every plant below cleared Kingston's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kingston?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Kingston
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Kingston, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kingston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kingston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kingston Twp Road DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Elliott DonaldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Casey's General Store #2485Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WALCAMP OUTDOOR MINISTRIES MERCURYSuperfund · 1500 ft
- Kingston's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NICOR STATION 304Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- City of Genoa Waste Water Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GREENLEE TEXTRON INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- 42N 5E-19.6b1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- GENOA AUTOBODYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Falls Motors LtdUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Pete's CastleUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingston'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 Kingston.
Total Sites
185
within ~10 miles of Kingston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kingston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kingston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kingston — CAFO (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kingston
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 Kingston average
Your land is one point inside Kingston
Everything above resolves to Kingston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 630 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 Kingston Average
Kingston Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kingston
- ●One soil character for all of Kingston
- ●Frost dates read at Kingston's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingston's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kingston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingston, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingston average
How we know this about Kingston
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 Kingston’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 Kingston
When does frost risk typically end in Kingston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingston 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 Kingston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kingston typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kingston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingston sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 9, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingston?
The federal record around Kingston is a meaningful one — 185 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kingston?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kingston's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingston'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 Kingston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kingston's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 630 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kingston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kingston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 23 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kingston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kingston's boundary and the 630 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kingston's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kingstonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kingston's 630 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kingston's 630 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kingston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 630 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kingston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisKingston sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides