Galva, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Galva, 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 Galva 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 Galva — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Galva — the short answer
Galva, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 319 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 319 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 Galva's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Galva's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Galva
Each reading below is measured for Galva itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGalva runs about 214 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
MeasuredGalva 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 Galva is in
Galva sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Galva's own centroid rather than borrowed from McPherson County.
What Grows in Galva
Every plant below cleared Galva's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Galva?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Galva
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Galva. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 19S 02W 22CBB 01Nitrate · 300 ft
- 1,2 DCA -WEST 2ND STREETSuperfund · 400 ft
- NIGHTINGALE PARTS & SVCBrownfields · 600 ft
- JIMS MOTOR MACHINE INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- 19S 02W 21ADD 01Nitrate · 700 ft
- 19S 02W 22CBC 01Nitrate · 750 ft
- 19S 02W 22CBC 02Nitrate · 750 ft
- YOST REPAIRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 19S 02W 22CCA 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- UNRUH ELECBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PLASTICS EXTRUSION MACHINERY LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- PRAIRIELAND PARTNERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Galva'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 Galva.
Total Sites
270
within ~10 miles of Galva
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Galva
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Galva
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Galva, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Galva. 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 Galva
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 Galva average
Your land is one point inside Galva
Everything above resolves to Galva as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 319 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 Galva Average
Galva Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Galva
- ●One soil character for all of Galva
- ●Frost dates read at Galva's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Galva's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Galva
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Galva, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Galva averages can't show:
We read public map data around Galva — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Galva average
How we know this about Galva
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 Galva’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 Galva
When does frost risk typically end in Galva?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Galva typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Galva?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Galva typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Galva?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Galva sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 20, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Galva?
The federal record around Galva is a meaningful one — 270 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Galva?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Galva's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Galva'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 Galva’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Galva's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 319 acres it covers and 270 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Galva's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Galva's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 3 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 270 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Galva, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Galva's boundary and the 319 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Galva's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Galva's 319 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McPherson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McPherson 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 McPherson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Galva's 319 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Galva you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 319 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 Galva-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasGalva sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides