Carlton, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Carlton, 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 Carlton 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 Carlton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carlton — the short answer
Carlton, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 109 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- 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 6b is Carlton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlton's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlton
Each reading below is measured for Carlton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlton runs about 212 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
MeasuredCarlton 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 Carlton is in
Carlton sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carlton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dickinson County.
What Grows in Carlton
Every plant below cleared Carlton's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 1 — 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 Carlton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TONN GRAIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 15S 02E 21BBC 01Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 15S 01E 05DDD 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 16S 02E 33DCC 01Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD - GYPSUUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- 15S 01W 34BCC 01Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- K4 GARAGE, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- GIMESON AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- KOGLER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- MAYDEN FEEDLOTCAFO · 7.7 mi
- 17S 01E 18ADD 01Nitrate · 8.4 mi
- L-4 FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 8.6 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlton'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 Carlton.
Total Sites
18
within ~10 miles of Carlton
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlton
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Carlton
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 Carlton average
Your land is one point inside Carlton
Everything above resolves to Carlton 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 Carlton Average
Carlton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Carlton
- ●One soil character for all of Carlton
- ●Frost dates read at Carlton's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlton, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlton average
How we know this about Carlton
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 Carlton’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 Carlton
When does frost risk typically end in Carlton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlton 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 Carlton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlton typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlton sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlton?
The federal record around Carlton is light — 18 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carlton?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlton's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlton'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 Carlton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carlton's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlton's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carlton's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carlton's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dickinson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dickinson 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 Dickinson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlton's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlton 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 0.1 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 Carlton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasCarlton sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.