Gove City, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gove City, 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 Gove City 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 Gove City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gove City — the short answer
Gove City, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 156 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
- 156 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 Gove City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gove City's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gove City
Each reading below is measured for Gove City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGove City 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
MeasuredGove City 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 Gove City is in
Gove City sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Gove City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gove County.
What Grows in Gove City
Every plant below cleared Gove City'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 Gove City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Gove City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gove City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRIPLE E FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- COBERLY, MARK S.Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- WILSONS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- GAIL BEESLEY-FARMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- GOVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GOVE CO, OFFICE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 13S 29W 01ADA 02Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 13S 29W 01ADA 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 12S 29W 24DA 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 13S 29W 14DD 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 13S 29W 04BA 01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 13S 29W 04BAC 02Nitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gove City'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 Gove City.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Gove City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
50 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gove City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gove City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Gove City. 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 Gove City
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 Gove City average
Your land is one point inside Gove City
Everything above resolves to Gove City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 156 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 Gove City Average
Gove City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gove City
- ●One soil character for all of Gove City
- ●Frost dates read at Gove City's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gove City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gove City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gove City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gove City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gove City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gove City average
How we know this about Gove City
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 Gove City’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 Gove City
When does frost risk typically end in Gove City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gove City 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 Gove City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gove City 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 Gove City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gove City 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 Gove City?
The federal record around Gove City shows 59 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Gove City?
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 Gove City's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gove City'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 Gove City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gove City's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 156 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gove City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gove City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 23 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gove City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gove City's boundary and the 156 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 Gove City's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gove City's 156 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gove County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gove 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 Gove County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gove City's 156 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gove City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 156 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gove City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasGove City sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides