Johnson City, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Johnson 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 Johnson 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 Johnson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Johnson City — the short answer
Johnson City, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Johnson City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Johnson City's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Johnson City
Each reading below is measured for Johnson City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJohnson City runs about 200 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
MeasuredJohnson City 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 Johnson City is in
Johnson City sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Johnson City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stanton County.
What Grows in Johnson City
Every plant below cleared Johnson City's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Johnson City?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Johnson City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Johnson City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETERSON, CHARLIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STANTON COUNTY HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 28S 41W 36ABD 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- WARTMAN SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SKYLAND GRAIN CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EAGLE CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GOLDEN RULE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- USD #452Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GERARD AIRCRAFT INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 28S 41W 36DCB 02Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 28S 41W 36DCB 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- JOHNSON COOP GRAIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Johnson 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 Johnson City.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Johnson City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Johnson City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Johnson City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Johnson City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Johnson City — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (60 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Johnson 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 Johnson City average
Your land is one point inside Johnson City
Everything above resolves to Johnson City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Johnson City Average
Johnson City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Johnson City
- ●One soil character for all of Johnson City
- ●Frost dates read at Johnson City's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Johnson City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Johnson City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Johnson City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Johnson City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Johnson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Johnson City average
How we know this about Johnson 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 Johnson 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 Johnson City
When does frost risk typically end in Johnson City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson City typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Johnson City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson City typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Johnson City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Johnson City sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 14, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Johnson City?
The federal record around Johnson City shows 98 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), 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 Johnson City?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Johnson City's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Johnson 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 Johnson City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Johnson City's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,371 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Johnson City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Johnson City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 28 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Johnson City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Johnson City's boundary and the 1,371 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Johnson City's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Johnson City's 1,371 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stanton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stanton 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 Stanton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Johnson City's 1,371 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Johnson 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 1,371 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 Johnson City-wide figureread your own land →
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