Macksville, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Macksville, 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 Macksville 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 Macksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Macksville — the short answer
Macksville, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 639 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 639 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 Macksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macksville's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Macksville
Each reading below is measured for Macksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMacksville runs about 209 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
MeasuredMacksville 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 Macksville is in
Macksville sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Macksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stafford County.
What Grows in Macksville
Every plant below cleared Macksville's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Macksville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Macksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Macksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KANZA CO-OP ASSN. - MACKSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DAB OIL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 24S 15W 15CCB 01Nitrate · 800 ft
- 24S 15W 15CCC 03Nitrate · 950 ft
- 24S 15W 15CCC 01Nitrate · 950 ft
- 24S 15W 15CCC 02Nitrate · 950 ft
- 24S 15W 15CCA 01Nitrate · 1400 ft
- USD #351Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STAFFORD GLASS & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- 24S 15W 15CDA 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- CLARK FLYING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Macksville'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 Macksville.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Macksville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Macksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Macksville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Macksville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Macksville — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Macksville
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 Macksville average
Your land is one point inside Macksville
Everything above resolves to Macksville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 639 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 Macksville Average
Macksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Macksville
- ●One soil character for all of Macksville
- ●Frost dates read at Macksville's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macksville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Macksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macksville, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macksville average
How we know this about Macksville
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 Macksville’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 Macksville
When does frost risk typically end in Macksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macksville typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Macksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Macksville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Macksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macksville sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macksville?
The federal record around Macksville shows 75 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), 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 Macksville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Macksville's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macksville'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 Macksville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Macksville's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 639 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macksville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Macksville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Macksville's boundary and the 639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Macksville's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Macksville's 639 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stafford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stafford 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 Stafford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Macksville's 639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Macksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 639 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 Macksville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasMacksville sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.