Gove County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Gove County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Gove 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 Gove County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gove County — the short answer
Gove County, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 686K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 686K 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 6a is Gove County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gove County's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Gove County
Across a year, Gove County accumulates about 3,372 growing degree days above 50°F, about 461 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 12 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 Gove County
Across Gove County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Ulysses, Keith, and Harney are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Gove County
The USDA soil survey maps 99% of Gove County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% excessively drained.
Ulysses is the most extensive named soil at 30% of mapped acres, then Keith (15%) and Harney (11%).
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 Gove County
Each reading below is measured for Gove 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 Gove County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Gove County runs about pH 7.0–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGove County runs about 192 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
MeasuredGove County 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 Gove County is in
Gove County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (86%) and High Plains (14%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Gove County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Gove County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 192-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 Gove County?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What gets applied to farmland in Gove County
USGS estimates 274,802 lb of Atrazine on Gove County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (226,477 lb) and Acetochlor (134,911 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 Gove County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Gove County — 223 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Gove 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 Gove County
Closest first, across Gove County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 13S 29W 14DD 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 13S 29W 01ADA 02Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 13S 29W 01ADA 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- GOVE CO, OFFICE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- GOVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WILSONS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- GAIL BEESLEY-FARMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- TRIPLE E FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- COBERLY, MARK S.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- MENDENHALL EST, LESLIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 13S 29W 04BAC 02Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 13S 29W 04BA 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gove 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 Gove County.
Total Sites
223
across Gove County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Gove County
Severity Distribution
across Gove County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gove County, two things run higher than the national average across Gove County — Nitrate (164 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Gove 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 Gove County average
Your land is one point inside Gove County
Everything above resolves to Gove County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 686K 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 Gove County Average
Gove County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gove County
- ●One soil character for all of Gove County
- ●Frost dates read at Gove County's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gove County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Gove County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gove County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gove County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gove County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gove County average
How we know this about Gove 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 Gove County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Gove County
When does frost risk typically end in Gove County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gove County typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Gove County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gove County sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 9, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gove County?
The federal record around Gove County is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (164), the nearest Nitrate 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 Gove County's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gove 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 Gove County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Gove County's own scale — its own ~192-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 223 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gove County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gove County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Gove CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 223 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Gove County's boundary and the 685,866 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Gove County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Gove 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 Gove County — the ~192 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 Gove County's 685,866 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 223 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 Gove Countyread your own land →