South Barrington, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in South Barrington, 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 South Barrington 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 South Barrington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Barrington — the short answer
South Barrington, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 South Barrington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Barrington's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Barrington
Each reading below is measured for South Barrington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Barrington runs about 191 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
MeasuredSouth Barrington 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 South Barrington is in
South Barrington sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Barrington'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 South Barrington
Every plant below cleared South Barrington's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Barrington?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around South Barrington
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from South Barrington, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Barrington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Barrington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Steven HoffmanUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Klehm NurseryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Crabtree Nature CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- North West Mosquito Abatement DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 50 W HigginsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SIEMENS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS USA INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SIEMENS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- Allstate Ins CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Ameritech CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Bucky's Express #411Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WALGREENS #5553Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- HOFFMAN ESTATES, VILLAGE OFBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Barrington'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 South Barrington.
Total Sites
2,435
within ~10 miles of South Barrington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Barrington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Barrington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Barrington, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 165 sites within ~10 miles of South Barrington. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in South Barrington
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 South Barrington average
Your land is one point inside South Barrington
Everything above resolves to South Barrington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 South Barrington Average
South Barrington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across South Barrington
- ●One soil character for all of South Barrington
- ●Frost dates read at South Barrington's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Barrington's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Barrington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Barrington, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Barrington averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Barrington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Barrington average
How we know this about South Barrington
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 South Barrington’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 South Barrington
When does frost risk typically end in South Barrington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Barrington typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in South Barrington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Barrington typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Barrington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Barrington sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 8, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Barrington?
The federal record around South Barrington is a meaningful one — 2,435 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 South Barrington?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Barrington's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Barrington'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 South Barrington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Barrington's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,773 acres it covers and 2,435 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Barrington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Barrington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 22 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,435 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Barrington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Barrington's boundary and the 4,773 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- South Barrington 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 South Barringtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Barrington's 4,773 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 South Barrington's 4,773 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Barrington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,773 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 South Barrington-wide figureread your own land →