La Cygne, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in La Cygne, 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 La Cygne 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 La Cygne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Cygne — the short answer
La Cygne, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 978 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 978 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 La Cygne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Cygne's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Cygne
Each reading below is measured for La Cygne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Cygne runs about 219 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
MeasuredLa Cygne 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 La Cygne is in
La Cygne sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Cygne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Linn County.
What Grows in La Cygne
Every plant below cleared La Cygne's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Cygne?
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 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near La Cygne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Cygne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LA CYGNE MAIN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WADE'S SERVICE & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3397Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE - #1276Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- STEVES SVCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LA CYGNE STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MFA OIL COMPANY - CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROSS SCHOOL BUS SVCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- PRAIRIE VIEW USD 362 TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MIDWEST WOODWORKING INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- 20S 24E 03BAB 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- HELM IMPROVEMENT LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Cygne'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 La Cygne.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of La Cygne
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Cygne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Cygne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Cygne, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of La Cygne. 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 La Cygne
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 La Cygne average
Your land is one point inside La Cygne
Everything above resolves to La Cygne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 978 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 La Cygne Average
La Cygne Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across La Cygne
- ●One soil character for all of La Cygne
- ●Frost dates read at La Cygne's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Cygne's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Cygne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Cygne, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Cygne averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Cygne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Cygne average
How we know this about La Cygne
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 La Cygne’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 La Cygne
When does frost risk typically end in La Cygne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Cygne 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 La Cygne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Cygne typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Cygne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Cygne sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Cygne?
The federal record around La Cygne shows 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), 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 La Cygne?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Cygne's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Cygne'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 La Cygne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Cygne's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 978 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Cygne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Cygne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Cygne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Cygne's boundary and the 978 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Cygne's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Cygne's 978 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Linn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Linn 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 Linn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Cygne's 978 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Cygne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 978 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 La Cygne-wide figureread your own land →