Bird City, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Bird 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 Bird 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 Bird City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bird City — the short answer
Bird City, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Bird City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bird City's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bird City
Each reading below is measured for Bird City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBird City runs about 182 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBird City 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 Bird City is in
Bird City sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bird City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cheyenne County.
What Grows in Bird City
Every plant below cleared Bird City's own zone 6a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bird City?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Bird City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bird City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RX AUTO AGRI & MACHINUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- NORTHWEST KANSAS ELECTRIC COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- BURLINGTON NORTHERN RAILROAD CUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- SOWERS SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- USD #103Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- AG REPAIR SVCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- BRUBAKER FARM, ROBERT BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 03S 38W 36BAD 02Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 03S 38W 36BAD 01Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 03S 38W 36BAC 02Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 03S 38W 36CAD 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- KRIEN FERTILIZERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bird 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 Bird City.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Bird City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bird City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bird City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bird City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Bird City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Bird 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 Bird City average
Your land is one point inside Bird City
Everything above resolves to Bird City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bird City Average
Bird City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bird City
- ●One soil character for all of Bird City
- ●Frost dates read at Bird City's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bird City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bird City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bird City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bird City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bird City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bird City average
How we know this about Bird 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 Bird 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 Bird City
When does frost risk typically end in Bird City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bird City typically lands around Apr 20, 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 May 11.
When is the first frost in Bird City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bird City typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bird City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bird City sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 5, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bird City?
The federal record around Bird City shows 59 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bird City?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bird City's scale — its 6a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bird 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 Bird City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bird City's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,450 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bird City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bird City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 19 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bird City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bird City's boundary and the 1,450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bird City's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bird City's 1,450 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cheyenne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cheyenne 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 Cheyenne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bird City's 1,450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bird 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 1,450 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 Bird City-wide figureread your own land →
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