Lancaster, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Lancaster, 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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lancaster — the short answer
Lancaster, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 127 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 127 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 Lancaster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lancaster's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lancaster
Each reading below is measured for Lancaster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLancaster runs about 214 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
MeasuredLancaster 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 Lancaster is in
Lancaster sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lancaster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atchison County.
What Grows in Lancaster
Every plant below cleared Lancaster's own zone 6a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lancaster?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Lancaster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lancaster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05S 19E 32DAD 01Nitrate · 700 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADBrownfields · 1100 ft
- LANCASTER OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 05S 19E 28BBC 01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 05S 19E 27BBD 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 06S 19E 07BBB 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- ATCHISON TUBULAR SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- 06S 18E 12CC 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 05S 18E 23ADB 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 06S 18E 13DAC 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 05S 19E 09BCD 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 06S 20E 07BDC 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lancaster'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 Lancaster.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Lancaster
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lancaster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lancaster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lancaster, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of Lancaster. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Lancaster
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 Lancaster average
Your land is one point inside Lancaster
Everything above resolves to Lancaster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127 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 Lancaster Average
Lancaster Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lancaster
- ●One soil character for all of Lancaster
- ●Frost dates read at Lancaster's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lancaster's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lancaster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lancaster, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lancaster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lancaster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lancaster average
How we know this about Lancaster
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 Lancaster’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 Lancaster
When does frost risk typically end in Lancaster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lancaster typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Lancaster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lancaster typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lancaster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lancaster sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lancaster?
The federal record around Lancaster shows 162 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Nitrate 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 Lancaster?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lancaster's scale — its 6a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lancaster'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 Lancaster’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lancaster's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 127 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lancaster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lancaster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lancaster, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lancaster's boundary and the 127 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lancaster's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lancaster's 127 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atchison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atchison 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 Atchison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lancaster's 127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lancaster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 127 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Lancaster-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasLancaster sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides