Downs, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Downs, 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 Downs 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 Downs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Downs — the short answer
Downs, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 717 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 717 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 Downs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Downs's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Downs
Each reading below is measured for Downs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDowns runs about 198 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
MeasuredDowns 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 Downs is in
Downs sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Downs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osborne County.
What Grows in Downs
Every plant below cleared Downs's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Downs?
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 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 25 — 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's on the federal record near Downs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Downs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06S 11W 28ADC 01Nitrate · 500 ft
- 06S 11W 28ACD 01Nitrate · 600 ft
- 06S 11W 28ACDD01Nitrate · 850 ft
- MID TOWN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BURNELL LOWDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALTA #6209Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 06S 11W 27CBB 02Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 06S 11W 27CBB 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- DOWNS OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 06S 11W 27BBD 01Nitrate · 2400 ft
- 06S 11W 28BAB 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 06S 11W 27CCB 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Downs'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 Downs.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Downs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Downs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Downs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Downs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Downs. 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 Downs
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 Downs average
Your land is one point inside Downs
Everything above resolves to Downs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 717 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 Downs Average
Downs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Downs
- ●One soil character for all of Downs
- ●Frost dates read at Downs's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Downs's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Downs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Downs, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Downs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Downs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Downs average
How we know this about Downs
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 Downs’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 Downs
When does frost risk typically end in Downs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Downs 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 Downs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Downs typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Downs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Downs sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 11, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Downs?
The federal record around Downs shows 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Nitrate 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 Downs?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Downs's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Downs'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 Downs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Downs's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 717 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Downs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Downs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 25 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Downs, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Downs's boundary and the 717 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Downs's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Downs's 717 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osborne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osborne 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 Osborne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Downs's 717 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Downs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 717 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Downs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasDowns sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides