Lake Quivira, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lake Quivira, 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 Lake Quivira 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 Lake Quivira — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Quivira — the short answer
Lake Quivira, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 945 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 945 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 Lake Quivira's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Quivira's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Quivira
Each reading below is measured for Lake Quivira itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Quivira runs about 224 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
MeasuredLake Quivira 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 Lake Quivira is in
Lake Quivira sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Quivira's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnson County.
What Grows in Lake Quivira
Every plant below cleared Lake Quivira's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Quivira?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 9 — 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.
Documented around Lake Quivira
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lake Quivira checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 390 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Quivira
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Quivira. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12S 24E 05CDA 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- LAKE QUIVIRA FUEL ISLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 12S 24E 05DCD 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11S 24E 32ABA 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 11S 24E 32AAB 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 11S 24E 32AAB 02Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 11S 24E 32AAA 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11S 24E 32AAA 02Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- CENTURY CONCRETE INC EDWARDSVILLE FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- HARBOUR BROS CONST CO INBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 11S 24E 29DDC 02Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 11S 24E 29DDC 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Quivira'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 Lake Quivira.
Total Sites
2,450
within ~10 miles of Lake Quivira
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Quivira
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Quivira
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Quivira
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 Lake Quivira average
Your land is one point inside Lake Quivira
Everything above resolves to Lake Quivira as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 945 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 Lake Quivira Average
Lake Quivira Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Quivira
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Quivira
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Quivira's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Quivira's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Quivira
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Quivira, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Quivira averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Quivira — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Quivira average
How we know this about Lake Quivira
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 Lake Quivira’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 Lake Quivira
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Quivira?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Quivira 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 Lake Quivira?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Quivira typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Quivira?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Quivira sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Quivira?
The federal record around Lake Quivira is a meaningful one — 2,450 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,055), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lake Quivira?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Quivira's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Quivira'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 Lake Quivira’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Quivira's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 945 acres it covers and 2,450 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Quivira's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Quivira's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,450 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Quivira, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Quivira's boundary and the 945 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Quivira's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lake Quivira checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Quivira's 945 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Quivira's 945 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Quivira you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 945 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lake Quivira-wide figureread your own land →
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