Leawood, 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 Leawood, 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 Leawood 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 Leawood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leawood — the short answer
Leawood, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Leawood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leawood's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leawood
Each reading below is measured for Leawood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeawood runs about 232 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
MeasuredLeawood 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 Leawood is in
Leawood sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Leawood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnson County.
What Grows in Leawood
Every plant below cleared Leawood's own zone 6b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leawood?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Leawood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leawood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEAWOOD SOUTH COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 1200 ft
- WATERWAY GAS & WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 13S 25E 23CCB 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CONOCOPHILLIPS 2706256Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEAWOOD JUSTICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PHILLIPS PET CO 27750Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #8588Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- FLEMING UNB #26Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WALGREENS #13950Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- MACY'S - LEAWOOD (TOWN CENTER PLAZA)Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- BIG O TIRES #4808Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- HELZBERG DIAMONDS-186-LEAWOOD TOWN CENTERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leawood'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 Leawood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leawood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leawood
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 Leawood
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 Leawood average
Your land is one point inside Leawood
Everything above resolves to Leawood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Leawood Average
Leawood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Leawood
- ●One soil character for all of Leawood
- ●Frost dates read at Leawood's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leawood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leawood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leawood, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leawood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leawood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leawood average
How we know this about Leawood
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 Leawood’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 Leawood
When does frost risk typically end in Leawood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leawood typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Leawood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leawood typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leawood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leawood sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 31, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leawood?
The federal record around Leawood is a meaningful one — 2,063 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (984), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Leawood?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leawood's scale — its 6b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leawood'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 Leawood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leawood's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,668 acres it covers and 2,063 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leawood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leawood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 14 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,063 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leawood, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leawood's boundary and the 9,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leawood's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leawood's 9,668 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 Leawood's 9,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leawood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Leawood-wide figureread your own land →