Denton, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Denton, 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 Denton 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 Denton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Denton — the short answer
Denton, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 93 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 93 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 Denton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Denton's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Denton
Each reading below is measured for Denton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDenton runs about 209 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
MeasuredDenton 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 Denton is in
Denton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Denton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doniphan County.
What Grows in Denton
Every plant below cleared Denton's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Denton?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Denton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Denton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USD #433Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 04S 19E 10AAA 02Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 04S 19E 10AAD 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 04S 19E 11CCB 01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- BOOS FARMS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 03S 19E 33CCC 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 03S 19E 28BAA 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 04S 19E 23CBB 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 04S 19E 07CAB 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 04S 19E 06CBC 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 04S 19E 24CDD 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 04S 19E 29AAA 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Denton'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 Denton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Denton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Denton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Denton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Denton. 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 Denton
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 Denton average
Your land is one point inside Denton
Everything above resolves to Denton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 93 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 Denton Average
Denton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Denton
- ●One soil character for all of Denton
- ●Frost dates read at Denton's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Denton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Denton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Denton, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Denton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Denton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Denton average
How we know this about Denton
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 Denton’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 Denton
When does frost risk typically end in Denton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Denton typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Denton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Denton typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Denton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Denton sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Denton?
The federal record around Denton shows 128 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Denton?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Denton's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Denton'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 Denton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Denton's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 93 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Denton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Denton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Denton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Denton's boundary and the 93 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Denton's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Denton's 93 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doniphan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doniphan 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 Doniphan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Denton's 93 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Denton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 93 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Denton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasDenton sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.