Goddard, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goddard, 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 Goddard 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 Goddard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goddard — the short answer
Goddard, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 7a is Goddard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goddard's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goddard
Each reading below is measured for Goddard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoddard runs about 225 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
MeasuredGoddard sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Goddard is in
Goddard sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Goddard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sedgwick County.
What Grows in Goddard
Every plant below cleared Goddard's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goddard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Goddard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goddard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUPERCENTER, #3103-00Brownfields · 900 ft
- VERMEER GREAT PLAINS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MEYER AUTO ENTERPRISES LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MURPHY EXPRESS #8770Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORRIS COLLISION CTR LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 27S 02W 32BCA 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 27S 02W 32BBB 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 27S 02W 32BBB 02Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- GODDARD AUTO & TRUCKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SUBURBAN WEST STATE BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- UNIVERSAL PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- UNIVERSAL PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goddard'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 Goddard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goddard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goddard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goddard, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Goddard. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Goddard
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 Goddard average
Your land is one point inside Goddard
Everything above resolves to Goddard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Goddard Average
Goddard Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Goddard
- ●One soil character for all of Goddard
- ●Frost dates read at Goddard's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goddard's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goddard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goddard, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goddard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goddard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goddard average
How we know this about Goddard
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 Goddard’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 Goddard
When does frost risk typically end in Goddard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goddard typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Goddard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goddard typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goddard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goddard sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 27, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goddard?
The federal record around Goddard is a meaningful one — 894 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (353), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Goddard?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goddard's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goddard'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 Goddard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goddard's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,611 acres it covers and 894 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goddard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goddard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 10 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 894 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goddard, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goddard's boundary and the 3,611 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goddard's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goddard's 3,611 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sedgwick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sedgwick 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 Sedgwick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goddard's 3,611 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goddard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,611 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Goddard-wide figureread your own land →