Barton County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Barton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Barton County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Barton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Barton County — the short answer
Barton County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 573K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 573K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Barton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barton County's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Barton County
Across a year, Barton County accumulates about 3,952 growing degree days above 50°F, about 119 more than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 73 of Kansas’s 105 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Barton County
Across Barton County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Harney, Crete, and Wakeen are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
74%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Barton County
The USDA soil survey maps 64% of Barton County as well drained — but another 33% drains differently: 21% moderately well drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Harney is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Crete (15%) and Wakeen (5%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Barton County
Each reading below is measured for Barton County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Barton County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Barton County runs about pH 6.1–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBarton County runs about 208 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
MeasuredBarton County 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 Barton County is in
Barton County sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Barton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Barton County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 208-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Barton County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Barton County
USGS estimates 207,669 lb of Glyphosate on Barton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (73,340 lb) and 2,4-d (56,118 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Barton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Barton County — 477 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Barton County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Barton County
Closest first, across Barton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GUTHRIE STEAMING & TANK SERVICE, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- KANSAS BRICK & TILE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 18S 13W 15DAA 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- A-1 AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- KAISER'S SHAMROCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- GREGS' TURNAROUND SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- ROTO MIX LLCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- UPRR, HOISINGTON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- ADM GRAIN CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DEINES DIRT CONSTRBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- MANWEILER CHEVROLET COBrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barton County'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 Barton County.
Severity Distribution
across Barton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barton County, two things run higher than the national average across Barton County — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (184 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Barton County
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 Barton County average
Your land is one point inside Barton County
Everything above resolves to Barton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 573K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Barton County Average
Barton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Barton County
- ●One soil character for all of Barton County
- ●Frost dates read at Barton County's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barton County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Barton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barton County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barton County average
How we know this about Barton County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Barton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Barton County
When does frost risk typically end in Barton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barton County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Barton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barton County sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 15, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barton County?
The federal record around Barton County is a meaningful one — 477 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (184), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Barton County's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barton County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Kansas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Barton County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Barton County's own scale — its own ~208-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 477 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Barton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 477 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Barton County's boundary and the 572,964 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Barton County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Barton County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Barton County — the ~208 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barton County's 572,964 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 477 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Barton Countyread your own land →