Assaria, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Assaria, 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 Assaria 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 Assaria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Assaria — the short answer
Assaria, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 150 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
- 150 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 Assaria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Assaria's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Assaria
Each reading below is measured for Assaria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAssaria 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
MeasuredAssaria 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 Assaria is in
Assaria sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Assaria's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saline County.
What Grows in Assaria
Every plant below cleared Assaria'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 Assaria?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Assaria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Assaria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASSARIA OIL/ HARDWARE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- GREAT PLAINS MANUFACTURING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 200 ft
- GREAT PLAINS MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 200 ft
- 16S 03W 12BDD 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 16S 03W 12BDD 02Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 16S 03W 01CCC 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 16S 02W 06CCB 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- STRESS-CAST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 16S 03W 13DDA 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SCHILLING (EX) DEF-GM FLDSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- 15S 03W 36ABB 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 15S 02W 30DAC 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Assaria'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 Assaria.
Total Sites
252
within ~10 miles of Assaria
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Assaria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Assaria
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Assaria, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Assaria — Superfund (7 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Assaria
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 Assaria average
Your land is one point inside Assaria
Everything above resolves to Assaria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 150 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 Assaria Average
Assaria Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Assaria
- ●One soil character for all of Assaria
- ●Frost dates read at Assaria's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Assaria's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Assaria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Assaria, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Assaria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Assaria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Assaria average
How we know this about Assaria
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 Assaria’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 Assaria
When does frost risk typically end in Assaria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Assaria 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 Assaria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Assaria 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 Assaria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Assaria 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 Assaria?
The federal record around Assaria is a meaningful one — 252 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), 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 Assaria?
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 Assaria's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Assaria'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 Assaria’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Assaria's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 150 acres it covers and 252 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Assaria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Assaria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 252 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Assaria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Assaria's boundary and the 150 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 Assaria's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Assaria's 150 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Assaria's 150 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Assaria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 150 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 Assaria-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasAssaria sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides