Cheney, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, 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 Cheney, 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 Cheney 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 Cheney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cheney — the short answer
Cheney, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- 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 7a is Cheney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheney's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cheney
Each reading below is measured for Cheney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCheney runs about 225 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
MeasuredCheney sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Cheney is in
Cheney sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cheney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sedgwick County.
What Grows in Cheney
Every plant below cleared Cheney's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cheney?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Cheney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cheney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHENEY CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LUBBERS FORD INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- USD #268Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- USD #268Brownfields · 1100 ft
- TAYLOR FOOD MART #624Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- YESWAY #1119Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- YOUNG QUINTEN CONSTRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- 28S 04W 08BD 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE - #2948Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MCMAHAN MOTOR COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- 28S 04W 08BCD 01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- FARRELLS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheney'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 Cheney.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Cheney
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cheney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cheney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheney, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Cheney. 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 Cheney
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 Cheney average
Your land is one point inside Cheney
Everything above resolves to Cheney 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 Cheney Average
Cheney Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cheney
- ●One soil character for all of Cheney
- ●Frost dates read at Cheney's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheney's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cheney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheney, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheney average
How we know this about Cheney
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 Cheney’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 Cheney
When does frost risk typically end in Cheney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheney typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cheney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cheney typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cheney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheney sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 26, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheney?
The federal record around Cheney is a meaningful one — 72 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cheney?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cheney's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheney'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 Cheney’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cheney's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,484 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 9 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cheney, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cheney's boundary and the 1,484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cheney's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cheney's 1,484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sedgwick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sedgwick 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 Sedgwick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cheney's 1,484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cheney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,484 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 Cheney-wide figureread your own land →