Ozawkie, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Ozawkie, 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 Ozawkie 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 Ozawkie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ozawkie — the short answer
Ozawkie, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 190 acres of city.
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 190 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 Ozawkie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ozawkie's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ozawkie
Each reading below is measured for Ozawkie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOzawkie 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
MeasuredOzawkie 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 Ozawkie is in
Ozawkie sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ozawkie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Ozawkie
Every plant below cleared Ozawkie'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 Ozawkie?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 2 — 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 Ozawkie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ozawkie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09S 17E 25DAC 01Nitrate · 1300 ft
- OZAWKIE CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORES - #1294Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 09S 18E 31BDA 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- OZAWKIE MARINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 10S 17E 03AAC 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- CONCRETE SUPPLY OF TOPEKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 10S 17E 03AAB 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 10S 18E 08CCB 01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 09S 17E 11ABD 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 09S 18E 27CDA 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 09S 17E 32DDD 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ozawkie'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 Ozawkie.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Ozawkie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ozawkie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ozawkie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ozawkie, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Ozawkie. 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 Ozawkie
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 Ozawkie average
Your land is one point inside Ozawkie
Everything above resolves to Ozawkie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 190 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 Ozawkie Average
Ozawkie Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ozawkie
- ●One soil character for all of Ozawkie
- ●Frost dates read at Ozawkie's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ozawkie's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ozawkie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ozawkie, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ozawkie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ozawkie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ozawkie average
How we know this about Ozawkie
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 Ozawkie’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 Ozawkie
When does frost risk typically end in Ozawkie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ozawkie 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 Ozawkie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ozawkie typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ozawkie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ozawkie sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 19, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ozawkie?
The federal record around Ozawkie is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), 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 Ozawkie?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ozawkie's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ozawkie'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 Ozawkie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ozawkie's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 190 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ozawkie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ozawkie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 2 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ozawkie, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ozawkie's boundary and the 190 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ozawkie's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ozawkie's 190 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 Ozawkie's 190 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ozawkie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 190 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 Ozawkie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasOzawkie sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides