Barnes, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barnes, 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 Barnes 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 Barnes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnes — the short answer
Barnes, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 109 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 6a is Barnes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnes's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnes
Each reading below is measured for Barnes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnes runs about 203 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
MeasuredBarnes sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Barnes is in
Barnes sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Barnes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Barnes
Every plant below cleared Barnes's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Barnes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARNES CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HOME OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 04S 05E 09CA 02Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 04S 05E 09CA 01Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 04S 05E 09CAA 02Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 04S 05E 14CCD 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 04S 06E 17DC 01Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 03S 05E 16DAC 01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- GREENLEAF CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- FARMERS COOP ELEVATOR ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- NELSON BROS MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- KDC KANSAS FARMS, LLCCAFO · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnes'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 Barnes.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Barnes
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barnes — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (32 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 Barnes
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 Barnes average
Your land is one point inside Barnes
Everything above resolves to Barnes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 109 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 Barnes Average
Barnes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Barnes
- ●One soil character for all of Barnes
- ●Frost dates read at Barnes's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnes's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnes, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnes average
How we know this about Barnes
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 Barnes’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 Barnes
When does frost risk typically end in Barnes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnes typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Barnes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnes typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnes sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 11, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnes?
The federal record around Barnes shows 57 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Barnes?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnes's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnes'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 Barnes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Barnes's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 25 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnes's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnes's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barnes's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnes's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Barnes-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasBarnes sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides