Coolidge, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Coolidge, 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 Coolidge 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 Coolidge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coolidge — the short answer
Coolidge, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 276 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 276 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 Coolidge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coolidge's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coolidge
Each reading below is measured for Coolidge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoolidge runs about 188 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
MeasuredCoolidge 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 Coolidge is in
Coolidge sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Coolidge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Coolidge
Every plant below cleared Coolidge's own zone 6a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coolidge?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Coolidge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coolidge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 23S 43W 23BA 01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- COOLIDGE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 23S 42W 19CBB 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- SC02304129BBC1 USGS 380130102034001Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- RIO VISTA FARMS, LLCCAFO · 4.2 mi
- 24S 43W 10DD 01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- CDOT HollyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- CLIFF'S SHAMROCK SERVICEBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- Holly School District Re-3Underground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- JR's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 22S 43W 14CD 01Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- SC02304203DADNitrate · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coolidge'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 Coolidge.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Coolidge
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coolidge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coolidge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coolidge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coolidge — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (20 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 Coolidge
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 Coolidge average
Your land is one point inside Coolidge
Everything above resolves to Coolidge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 276 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 Coolidge Average
Coolidge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Coolidge
- ●One soil character for all of Coolidge
- ●Frost dates read at Coolidge's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coolidge's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coolidge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coolidge, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coolidge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coolidge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coolidge average
How we know this about Coolidge
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 Coolidge’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 Coolidge
When does frost risk typically end in Coolidge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coolidge typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Coolidge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coolidge typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coolidge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coolidge sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 8, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coolidge?
The federal record around Coolidge is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Coolidge?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coolidge's scale — its 6a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coolidge'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 Coolidge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coolidge's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 276 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coolidge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coolidge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 22 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coolidge, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coolidge's boundary and the 276 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coolidge's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coolidge's 276 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coolidge's 276 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coolidge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 276 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Coolidge-wide figureread your own land →
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