Abilene, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Abilene, 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 Abilene 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 Abilene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Abilene — the short answer
Abilene, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Abilene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Abilene's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Abilene
Each reading below is measured for Abilene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAbilene runs about 213 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
MeasuredAbilene 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 Abilene is in
Abilene sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Abilene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dickinson County.
What Grows in Abilene
Every plant below cleared Abilene's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Abilene?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Abilene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Abilene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREAT PLAINS MANUFACTURING INCToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- GREAT PLAINS MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- CONSOLIDATED NUTRITION LCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- 13S 02E 17BDA 01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 13S 02E 17BDD 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- VACU-BLAST CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTAL #0468Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROBSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 13S 02E 17CAC 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- USD #435Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STEVES AUTO CAREBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HOWARDS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Abilene'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 Abilene.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Abilene
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Abilene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Abilene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Abilene, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Abilene. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Abilene
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 Abilene average
Your land is one point inside Abilene
Everything above resolves to Abilene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Abilene Average
Abilene Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Abilene
- ●One soil character for all of Abilene
- ●Frost dates read at Abilene's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Abilene's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Abilene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Abilene, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Abilene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Abilene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Abilene average
How we know this about Abilene
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Abilene’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Abilene
When does frost risk typically end in Abilene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Abilene typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Abilene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Abilene typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Abilene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Abilene sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Abilene?
The federal record around Abilene is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Abilene?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Abilene's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Abilene'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 Abilene’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Abilene's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,091 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Abilene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Abilene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Abilene, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Abilene's boundary and the 3,091 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Abilene's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Abilene's 3,091 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dickinson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dickinson County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Dickinson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Abilene's 3,091 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Abilene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,091 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Abilene-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasAbilene sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides