Natoma, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Natoma, 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 Natoma 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 Natoma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Natoma — the short answer
Natoma, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 270 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 270 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 Natoma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Natoma's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Natoma
Each reading below is measured for Natoma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNatoma runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNatoma 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 Natoma is in
Natoma sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Natoma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osborne County.
What Grows in Natoma
Every plant below cleared Natoma's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Natoma?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Natoma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Natoma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASTER OIL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 10S 15W 18AAA 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 10S 15W 07DDD 01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- TIORCO - A NALCO COMPANYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MASTERS OIL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HACHMEISTER FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.5 mi
- 10S 15W 19BCA 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 10S 15W 21ADA 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- REX-LATON PIG LAUNCHER/RECEIVER SITEBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- 11S 15W 08DDA 01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 11S 15W 10AC 01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 11S 15W 01CC 01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Natoma'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 Natoma.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Natoma
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Natoma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Natoma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Natoma, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Natoma. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Natoma
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 Natoma average
Your land is one point inside Natoma
Everything above resolves to Natoma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 270 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 Natoma Average
Natoma Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Natoma
- ●One soil character for all of Natoma
- ●Frost dates read at Natoma's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Natoma's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Natoma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Natoma, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Natoma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Natoma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Natoma average
How we know this about Natoma
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 Natoma’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 Natoma
When does frost risk typically end in Natoma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Natoma typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Natoma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Natoma typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Natoma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Natoma sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Natoma?
The federal record around Natoma is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Natoma?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Natoma's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Natoma'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 Natoma’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Natoma's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 270 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Natoma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Natoma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Natoma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Natoma's boundary and the 270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Natoma's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Natoma's 270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osborne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osborne 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 Osborne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Natoma's 270 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Natoma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 270 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 Natoma-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasNatoma sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides