Olpe, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Olpe, 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 Olpe 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 Olpe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olpe — the short answer
Olpe, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 450 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 450 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 Olpe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olpe's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olpe
Each reading below is measured for Olpe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlpe runs about 218 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
MeasuredOlpe 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 Olpe is in
Olpe sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Olpe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lyon County.
What Grows in Olpe
Every plant below cleared Olpe's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olpe?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 5 — 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 Olpe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olpe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHREINER ENERGIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WHITAKERS 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 21S 11E 02AAA 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 20S 12E 31BBC 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE - OLPE STATIONBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORES - #1405Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- FV-I #4004Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- EMPORIA MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 21S 11E 28DD 01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 19S 12E 32CCC 01Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- JIM'S MACHINE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- 20S 12E 24AAA 01Nitrate · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olpe'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 Olpe.
Total Sites
152
within ~10 miles of Olpe
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olpe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olpe
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Olpe
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 Olpe average
Your land is one point inside Olpe
Everything above resolves to Olpe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 450 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 Olpe Average
Olpe Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Olpe
- ●One soil character for all of Olpe
- ●Frost dates read at Olpe's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olpe's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olpe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olpe, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olpe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olpe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olpe average
How we know this about Olpe
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 Olpe’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 Olpe
When does frost risk typically end in Olpe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olpe 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 Olpe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olpe typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olpe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olpe sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 22, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olpe?
The federal record around Olpe shows 152 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Olpe?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olpe's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olpe'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 Olpe’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Olpe's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 450 acres it covers and 152 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olpe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olpe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 5 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olpe, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olpe's boundary and the 450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olpe's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Olpe's 450 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olpe's 450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olpe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 450 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Olpe-wide figureread your own land →
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