Neal, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Neal, 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 Neal 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 Neal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Neal — the short answer
Neal, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 129 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 129 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 Neal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Neal's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Neal
Each reading below is measured for Neal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNeal runs about 220 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
MeasuredNeal 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 Neal is in
Neal sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Neal's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenwood County.
What Grows in Neal
Every plant below cleared Neal's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Neal?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Neal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Neal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 25S 12E 35BBB 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 25S 13E 30CCA 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- ROBISON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- COUNTRY JUNCTION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- BIRD & HANLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- DYER SINCLAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- VIRGIL, CITY OFPFAS · 8.9 mi
- CORRECTIONS, DEPT OF - TORONTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
Measured from Neal'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 Neal.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Neal
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Neal
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 Neal average
Your land is one point inside Neal
Everything above resolves to Neal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 129 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 Neal Average
Neal Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Neal
- ●One soil character for all of Neal
- ●Frost dates read at Neal's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Neal's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Neal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Neal, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Neal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Neal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Neal average
How we know this about Neal
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 Neal’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 Neal
When does frost risk typically end in Neal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Neal typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Neal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Neal typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Neal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Neal sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Neal?
The federal record around Neal shows 11 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Neal?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Neal's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Neal'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 Neal’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Neal's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 129 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Neal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Neal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Neal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Neal's boundary and the 129 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Neal's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Neal's 129 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenwood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenwood 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 Greenwood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Neal's 129 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Neal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 129 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Neal-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Growing region