Lowell, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lowell, 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 Lowell 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 Lowell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lowell — the short answer
Lowell, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 201 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 201 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 7a is Lowell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lowell's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lowell
Each reading below is measured for Lowell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLowell runs about 228 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
MeasuredLowell sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Lowell is in
Lowell sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lowell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cherokee County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lowell
Every plant below cleared Lowell's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lowell?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. 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 Lowell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lowell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- well SP-14Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- EMPIRE DISTRICT ELECTRIC CO-RIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- USD #404 RIVERTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JAYHAWK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- EMPIRE DISTRICT ELECTRIC - RIVERTON POWER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- EMPIRE DISTRICT ELECTRIC - RIVERTON POWER PLANTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 34S 25E 19AAA 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- RIVERTON QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 34S 25E 20BAB 01 CHEROKEE CO RWD9Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Clara Jane MineMining · 1.7 mi
- 34S 25E 19AAB 01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 34S 25E 19BAB 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lowell'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 Lowell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lowell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lowell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lowell, Mining runs higher than the national average — 793 sites within ~10 miles of Lowell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Lowell
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 Lowell average
Your land is one point inside Lowell
Everything above resolves to Lowell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 201 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 town 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 Lowell Average
Lowell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lowell
- ●One soil character for all of Lowell
- ●Frost dates read at Lowell's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lowell's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lowell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lowell, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lowell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lowell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lowell average
How we know this about Lowell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lowell’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Lowell
When does frost risk typically end in Lowell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lowell typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Lowell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lowell 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 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lowell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lowell sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lowell?
The federal record around Lowell runs heavier than most — 1,143 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (793), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lowell?
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 Lowell's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lowell'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 Lowell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lowell's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 201 acres it covers and 1,143 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lowell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lowell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lowell, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lowell's boundary and the 201 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lowell sits in the Ozark Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lowell's 201 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherokee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherokee 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 Cherokee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lowell's 201 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lowell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 201 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Lowell-wide figureread your own land →