Ames, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ames, 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 Ames 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 Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ames — the short answer
Ames, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 273 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 273 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 Ames's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ames's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ames
Each reading below is measured for Ames itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmes runs about 209 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
MeasuredAmes 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 Ames is in
Ames sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ames's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cloud County.
What Grows in Ames
Every plant below cleared Ames's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ames?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Ames
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ames. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05S 01W 29BBB 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 05S 02W 36AC 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 06S 01W 03AA 01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 06S 01W 10CCB 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 06S 01W 10CC 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 05S 02W 25CCC 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- USD 224 CLIFTON CLYDE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- CLYDE COOPERATIVE ELEVATOR ASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- J & M SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 05S 01W 26ABD 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 05S 01W 26AD 02Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 05S 01W 16BB 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ames'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 Ames.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Ames
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ames
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ames
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ames, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ames — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (68 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ames
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 Ames average
Your land is one point inside Ames
Everything above resolves to Ames as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 273 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 Ames Average
Ames Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ames
- ●One soil character for all of Ames
- ●Frost dates read at Ames's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ames's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ames
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ames, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ames averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ames average
How we know this about Ames
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 Ames’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 Ames
When does frost risk typically end in Ames?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Ames?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ames?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ames sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 16, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ames?
The federal record around Ames shows 105 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Ames?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ames's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ames'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 Ames’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ames's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 273 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ames's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ames's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 30 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ames, the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ames's boundary and the 273 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ames's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ames's 273 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cloud County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cloud 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 Cloud County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ames's 273 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ames you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 273 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Ames-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasAmes sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.