Grainfield, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Grainfield, 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 Grainfield 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 Grainfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grainfield — the short answer
Grainfield, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 296 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 296 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 Grainfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grainfield's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grainfield
Each reading below is measured for Grainfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrainfield runs about 192 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
MeasuredGrainfield 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 Grainfield is in
Grainfield sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Grainfield's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Gove County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Grainfield
Every plant below cleared Grainfield's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grainfield?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Grainfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grainfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USD #292Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FRONTIER AG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 11S 28W 07AAC 01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 11S 28W 07AAB 01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- JACK'S REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GARYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COOPER OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUNSHINE GRAINFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHAW MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 11S 28W 18ADD 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- ZIEGLER, DOUGLAS EUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grainfield'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 Grainfield.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Grainfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grainfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grainfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grainfield, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Grainfield. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Grainfield
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 Grainfield average
Your land is one point inside Grainfield
Everything above resolves to Grainfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 296 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 Grainfield Average
Grainfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Grainfield
- ●One soil character for all of Grainfield
- ●Frost dates read at Grainfield's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grainfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grainfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grainfield, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grainfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grainfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grainfield average
How we know this about Grainfield
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 Grainfield’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 Grainfield
When does frost risk typically end in Grainfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grainfield typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Grainfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grainfield 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grainfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grainfield sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 9, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grainfield?
The federal record around Grainfield shows 73 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), 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 Grainfield?
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 Grainfield's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grainfield'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 Grainfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grainfield's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 296 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grainfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grainfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 23 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grainfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grainfield's boundary and the 296 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Grainfield sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grainfield's 296 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 Grainfield's 296 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grainfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 296 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 Grainfield-wide figureread your own land →