Copeland, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Copeland, 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 Copeland 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 Copeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Copeland — the short answer
Copeland, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 149 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 149 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 Copeland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Copeland's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Copeland
Each reading below is measured for Copeland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCopeland runs about 200 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
MeasuredCopeland 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 Copeland is in
Copeland sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Copeland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gray County.
What Grows in Copeland
Every plant below cleared Copeland's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Copeland?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Copeland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Copeland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUNHAM DRILLING COBrownfields · 500 ft
- DALES OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 29S 30W 08BD 01Nitrate · 800 ft
- 29S 30W 08BDD 01Nitrate · 850 ft
- 29S 30W 08BDD 02Nitrate · 850 ft
- UNRUH GRAIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KOEHNS SVC BULK PLTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JIM'S TOWN AND COUNTRY REPAIRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GERBER INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- USD 476 COPELANDBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- STUDE, FRANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Copeland'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 Copeland.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Copeland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Copeland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Copeland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Copeland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Copeland — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (40 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 Copeland
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 Copeland average
Your land is one point inside Copeland
Everything above resolves to Copeland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 149 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 Copeland Average
Copeland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Copeland
- ●One soil character for all of Copeland
- ●Frost dates read at Copeland's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Copeland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Copeland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Copeland, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Copeland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Copeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Copeland average
How we know this about Copeland
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 Copeland’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 Copeland
When does frost risk typically end in Copeland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Copeland typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Copeland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Copeland typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Copeland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Copeland sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 13, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Copeland?
The federal record around Copeland shows 69 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Brownfields 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 Copeland?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Copeland's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Copeland'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 Copeland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Copeland's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 149 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Copeland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Copeland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 27 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Copeland, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Copeland's boundary and the 149 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Copeland's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Copeland's 149 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gray County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gray 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 Gray County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Copeland's 149 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Copeland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 149 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Copeland-wide figureread your own land →
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