Gaylord, 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 Gaylord, 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 Gaylord 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 Gaylord — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gaylord — the short answer
Gaylord, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 163 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 Gaylord's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gaylord's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gaylord
Each reading below is measured for Gaylord itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGaylord runs about 193 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
MeasuredGaylord 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 Gaylord is in
Gaylord sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Gaylord's own centroid rather than borrowed from Smith County.
What Grows in Gaylord
Every plant below cleared Gaylord's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gaylord?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Gaylord
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gaylord. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRO-AG MARKETINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD - GAYLOUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- 05S 14W 01DBB 01Nitrate · 950 ft
- FRIELING GRAIN CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- USD #237Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 05S 14W 01CAD 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 05S 14W 01CA 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 05S 14W 01CDA 01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- KIRWIN IRRIGATION DISTRICT NOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 04S 14W 36CCD 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 04S 14W 36BD 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 05S 13W 07AAA 01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gaylord'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 Gaylord.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Gaylord
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gaylord
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gaylord
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gaylord, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Gaylord. 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 Gaylord
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 Gaylord average
Your land is one point inside Gaylord
Everything above resolves to Gaylord as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 Gaylord Average
Gaylord Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gaylord
- ●One soil character for all of Gaylord
- ●Frost dates read at Gaylord's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gaylord's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gaylord
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gaylord, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gaylord averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gaylord — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gaylord average
How we know this about Gaylord
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 Gaylord’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 Gaylord
When does frost risk typically end in Gaylord?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gaylord typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Gaylord?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gaylord typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gaylord?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gaylord sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 9, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gaylord?
The federal record around Gaylord 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 Gaylord?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gaylord's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gaylord'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 Gaylord’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gaylord's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gaylord's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gaylord's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 23 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gaylord, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gaylord's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gaylord's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gaylord's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Smith County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Smith 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 Smith County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gaylord's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gaylord you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 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 Gaylord-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasGaylord sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides