Everest, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Everest, 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 Everest 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 Everest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Everest — the short answer
Everest, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 148 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
- 148 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 Everest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Everest's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Everest
Each reading below is measured for Everest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEverest 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
MeasuredEverest 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 Everest is in
Everest sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Everest's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Everest
Every plant below cleared Everest'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 Everest?
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 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. 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 Everest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Everest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EDIE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FENDER MENDER THEBrownfields · 250 ft
- 04S 18E 29BDA 01Nitrate · 600 ft
- 04S 18E 29ACC 01Nitrate · 750 ft
- 04S 17E 24DDCC01 SITE 31-3Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 05S 18E 06BDA 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 05S 18E 06DBB 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 05S 18E 06CDA 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 05S 18E 06CDD 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 04S 18E 10DCD 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 05S 18E 07DCD 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 04S 17E 11AAA 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Everest'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 Everest.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Everest
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Everest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Everest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Everest, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 94 sites within ~10 miles of Everest. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Everest
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 Everest average
Your land is one point inside Everest
Everything above resolves to Everest as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 148 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 Everest Average
Everest Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Everest
- ●One soil character for all of Everest
- ●Frost dates read at Everest's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Everest's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Everest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Everest, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Everest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Everest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Everest average
How we know this about Everest
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 Everest’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 Everest
When does frost risk typically end in Everest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Everest 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 Everest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Everest 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 Everest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Everest 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 Everest?
The federal record around Everest shows 129 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), 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 Everest?
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 Everest's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Everest'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 Everest’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Everest's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 148 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Everest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Everest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Everest, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Everest's boundary and the 148 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 Everest'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 Everest's 148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Everest's 148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Everest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 148 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 Everest-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasEverest sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.