Baldwin City, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Baldwin City, 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 Baldwin City 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 Baldwin City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baldwin City — the short answer
Baldwin City, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Baldwin City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baldwin City's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baldwin City
Each reading below is measured for Baldwin City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaldwin City runs about 217 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
MeasuredBaldwin City 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 Baldwin City is in
Baldwin City sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Baldwin City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Baldwin City
Every plant below cleared Baldwin City's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baldwin City?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Baldwin City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Baldwin City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 419 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Baldwin City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baldwin City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAKER UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 450 ft
- ANDERSON, RICHARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WORDEN R REPEATER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DAVES AUTO & TRUCK RPRBrownfields · 950 ft
- BALDWIN USD 348Brownfields · 950 ft
- BELL AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- KWIK SHOP #787Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KWIK SHOP #752Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- J & L SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HOIST CO INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SPORTS CACHEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SANTA FE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baldwin City'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 Baldwin City.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Baldwin City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baldwin City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baldwin City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baldwin City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Baldwin City — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (76 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Baldwin City
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 Baldwin City average
Your land is one point inside Baldwin City
Everything above resolves to Baldwin City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Baldwin City Average
Baldwin City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Baldwin City
- ●One soil character for all of Baldwin City
- ●Frost dates read at Baldwin City's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baldwin City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baldwin City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baldwin City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baldwin City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baldwin City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baldwin City average
How we know this about Baldwin City
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 Baldwin City’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 Baldwin City
When does frost risk typically end in Baldwin City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwin City typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Baldwin City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwin City typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baldwin City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baldwin City sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baldwin City?
The federal record around Baldwin City is a meaningful one — 126 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Brownfields 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 Baldwin City?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baldwin City's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baldwin City'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 Baldwin City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Baldwin City's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,894 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baldwin City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baldwin City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baldwin City, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baldwin City's boundary and the 1,894 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baldwin City's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Baldwin City checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baldwin City's 1,894 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baldwin City's 1,894 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baldwin City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,894 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Baldwin City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasBaldwin City sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides