Park, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Park, 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 Park 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 Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Park — the short answer
Park, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 202 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 202 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 Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Park's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Park
Each reading below is measured for Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPark runs about 193 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
MeasuredPark 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 Park is in
Park sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Park's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Gove County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Park
Every plant below cleared Park's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Park?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11S 27W 07CAA 01Nitrate · 600 ft
- 11S 27W 07CA 01Nitrate · 850 ft
- FDIC CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PARK OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FRONTIER AG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 11S 28W 23CBB 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- GOETZ & SON FEEDLOTCAFO · 3.3 mi
- 11S 28W 26BCC 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 10S 27W 20CBC 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 11S 27W 14ADB 01Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- JUSTIN GOETZUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 11S 28W 17DDC 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Park'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 Park.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Park
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Park, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Park. 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 Park
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 Park average
Your land is one point inside Park
Everything above resolves to Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 202 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 Park Average
Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Park
- ●One soil character for all of Park
- ●Frost dates read at Park's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Park, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Park average
How we know this about Park
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 Park’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 Park
When does frost risk typically end in Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Park typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Park typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Park sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 9, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Park?
The federal record around Park shows 103 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (72), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Park?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Park's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Park'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 Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Park's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 202 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 23 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Park, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Park's boundary and the 202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Park sits in the High 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 Park's 202 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gove County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gove 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 Gove County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Park's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Park-wide figureread your own land →
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