Nortonville, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Nortonville, 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 Nortonville 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 Nortonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nortonville — the short answer
Nortonville, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 276 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 276 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 Nortonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nortonville's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nortonville
Each reading below is measured for Nortonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNortonville runs about 216 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
MeasuredNortonville 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 Nortonville is in
Nortonville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nortonville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jefferson County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Nortonville
Every plant below cleared Nortonville's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nortonville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Nortonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nortonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 07S 19E 29BBD 01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- TENPENNY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AT&SF RAILWAY C0Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 07S 19E 29BBA 01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- COUNTRY INN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 07S 19E 31AAA 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 07S 19E 29DDD 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 07S 19E 32ADA 01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 07S 18E 25BBA 01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 07S 18E 24BAA 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Well 1743-1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- Well 4ANitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nortonville'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 Nortonville.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Nortonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nortonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nortonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nortonville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 94 sites within ~10 miles of Nortonville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Nortonville
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 Nortonville average
Your land is one point inside Nortonville
Everything above resolves to Nortonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 276 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 Nortonville Average
Nortonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Nortonville
- ●One soil character for all of Nortonville
- ●Frost dates read at Nortonville's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nortonville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nortonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nortonville, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nortonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nortonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nortonville average
How we know this about Nortonville
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 Nortonville’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 Nortonville
When does frost risk typically end in Nortonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nortonville typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Nortonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nortonville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nortonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nortonville sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 20, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nortonville?
The federal record around Nortonville is a meaningful one — 119 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Nortonville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nortonville's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nortonville'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 Nortonville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nortonville's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 276 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nortonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nortonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 3 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nortonville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nortonville's boundary and the 276 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Nortonville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nortonville's 276 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nortonville's 276 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nortonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 276 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Nortonville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasNortonville sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides