Ford, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ford, 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 Ford 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 Ford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ford — the short answer
Ford, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 271 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 271 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 Ford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ford's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ford
Each reading below is measured for Ford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFord runs about 203 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
MeasuredFord 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 Ford is in
Ford sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ford County.
What Grows in Ford
Every plant below cleared Ford's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ford?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Ford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE HEREFORD STOP, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FORD CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 28S 22W 05ACD 01Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 28S 22W 04CC 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 27S 22W 29CAA 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 27S 22W 29CAA 02Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- FORD COUNTY FEEDERS, LLCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- FORD COUNTY FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 2.4 mi
- 27S 22W 20DCD 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 27S 22W 19CCC 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 28S 22W 10ACD 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 27S 22W 19DAB 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ford'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 Ford.
Total Sites
99
within ~10 miles of Ford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ford — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (78 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ford
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 Ford average
Your land is one point inside Ford
Everything above resolves to Ford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 271 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 Ford Average
Ford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ford
- ●One soil character for all of Ford
- ●Frost dates read at Ford's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ford's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ford, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ford average
How we know this about Ford
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 Ford’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 Ford
When does frost risk typically end in Ford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ford typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Ford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ford typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ford sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 14, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ford?
The federal record around Ford shows 99 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), 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 Ford?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ford's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ford'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 Ford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ford's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 271 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 28 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ford's boundary and the 271 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ford's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ford's 271 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ford 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 Ford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ford's 271 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 271 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 Ford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasFord sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides