Ensign, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Ensign, 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 Ensign 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 Ensign — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ensign — the short answer
Ensign, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 186 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
- 186 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 Ensign's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ensign's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ensign
Each reading below is measured for Ensign itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEnsign 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
MeasuredEnsign 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 Ensign is in
Ensign sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ensign's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gray County.
What Grows in Ensign
Every plant below cleared Ensign'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 Ensign?
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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Ensign
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ensign. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENSIGN IMPLEMENT CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- ENSIGN IMPLEMENT CO, INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- CARTER COUNTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DODGE CITY COOPERATIVE EXCHANGE(ENSIGN)Brownfields · 1600 ft
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- REINERT FEEDYARD INC.CAFO · 1.0 mi
- 27S 27W 27BBD 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- GROVES FARM INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 28S 26W 09BCC 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 27S 26W 07AD 01Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- HAGGARD CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 27S 26W 06DC 01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ensign'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 Ensign.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Ensign
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ensign
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ensign
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ensign, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ensign — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (44 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 Ensign
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 Ensign average
Your land is one point inside Ensign
Everything above resolves to Ensign as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 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 Ensign Average
Ensign Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ensign
- ●One soil character for all of Ensign
- ●Frost dates read at Ensign's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ensign's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ensign
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ensign, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ensign averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ensign — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ensign average
How we know this about Ensign
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 Ensign’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 Ensign
When does frost risk typically end in Ensign?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ensign 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 Ensign?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ensign 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 Ensign?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ensign 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 Ensign?
The federal record around Ensign shows 68 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ensign?
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 Ensign's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ensign'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 Ensign’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ensign's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ensign's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ensign's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 27 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ensign, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ensign's boundary and the 186 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 Ensign's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ensign's 186 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 Ensign's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ensign you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ensign-wide figureread your own land →
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