Lost Springs, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lost Springs, 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 Lost Springs 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 Lost Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lost Springs — the short answer
Lost Springs, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 142 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 142 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 Lost Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lost Springs's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lost Springs
Each reading below is measured for Lost Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLost Springs runs about 202 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
MeasuredLost Springs 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 Lost Springs is in
Lost Springs sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lost Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Lost Springs
Every plant below cleared Lost Springs's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lost Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Lost Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lost Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOST SPRINGS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ALVAREZ, JOE J.Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- USD #397 CENTRE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DIEPENBROCK FARMS, INC.CAFO · 4.5 mi
- OLD COOP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- K & F DISTRIBUTORS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- K.D.O.T.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- HERINGTON TRACTOR COBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- RAMONA GARAGE & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- STEVE SCHILD LIVESTOCK FACILITYCAFO · 5.7 mi
- BURDICK OIL FEED & FERT.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- CASTLEBERRY, BENUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lost Springs'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 Lost Springs.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of Lost Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lost Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lost Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lost Springs, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Lost Springs. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Lost Springs
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 Lost Springs average
Your land is one point inside Lost Springs
Everything above resolves to Lost Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 142 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 Lost Springs Average
Lost Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lost Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Lost Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Lost Springs's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lost Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lost Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lost Springs, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lost Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lost Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lost Springs average
How we know this about Lost Springs
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 Lost Springs’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 Lost Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Lost Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lost Springs typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Lost Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lost Springs typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lost Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lost Springs sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 13, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lost Springs?
The federal record around Lost Springs shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lost Springs?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lost Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lost Springs'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 Lost Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lost Springs's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 142 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lost Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lost Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 27 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lost Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lost Springs's boundary and the 142 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lost Springs's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lost Springs's 142 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lost Springs's 142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lost Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 142 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 Lost Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasLost Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides