Bunker Hill, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Bunker Hill, 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 Bunker Hill 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 Bunker Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bunker Hill — the short answer
Bunker Hill, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 887 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 887 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 Bunker Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bunker Hill's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bunker Hill
Each reading below is measured for Bunker Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBunker Hill 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
MeasuredBunker Hill 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 Bunker Hill is in
Bunker Hill sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bunker Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Russell County.
What Grows in Bunker Hill
Every plant below cleared Bunker Hill's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bunker Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Bunker Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KAW PIPE LINE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SUNMART #574Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TOTAL #4152Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 14S 13W 12DAD 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 14S 13W 12CBB 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 14S 12W 10DCC 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 14S 12W 10DCD 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- RUSSELL MUN AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- ANDERSON AERIAL SPRAYINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- 14S 11W 07CAB 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- RUSSELL CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- RUSSELL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bunker Hill'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 Bunker Hill.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bunker Hill, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Bunker Hill
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 Bunker Hill average
Your land is one point inside Bunker Hill
Everything above resolves to Bunker Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 887 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 Bunker Hill Average
Bunker Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bunker Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Bunker Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Bunker Hill's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bunker Hill's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bunker Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bunker Hill, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bunker Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bunker Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bunker Hill average
How we know this about Bunker Hill
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 Bunker Hill’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 Bunker Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Bunker Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bunker Hill typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Bunker Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bunker Hill typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bunker Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bunker Hill sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bunker Hill?
The federal record around Bunker Hill shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bunker Hill?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bunker Hill's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bunker Hill'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 Bunker Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bunker Hill's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 887 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bunker Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bunker Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 26 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bunker Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bunker Hill's boundary and the 887 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bunker Hill's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bunker Hill's 887 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Russell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Russell 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 Russell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bunker Hill's 887 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bunker Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 887 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bunker Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasBunker Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.