Phillipsburg, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Phillipsburg, 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 Phillipsburg 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 Phillipsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Phillipsburg — the short answer
Phillipsburg, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Phillipsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Phillipsburg's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Phillipsburg
Each reading below is measured for Phillipsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhillipsburg runs about 192 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
MeasuredPhillipsburg 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 Phillipsburg is in
Phillipsburg sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Phillipsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Phillipsburg
Every plant below cleared Phillipsburg's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Phillipsburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Phillipsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Phillipsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAUL BEYERLEINUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CALHOON'S MACHINE AND REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PHILLIPSBURG AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- LOVE'S #59Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JAMES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DENIO AUTOMOTIVE, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ALTA #6208Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- USD #325 PHILLIPSBURG HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ACE AUTO RPRBrownfields · 2100 ft
- RANGELAND COOP PHILLIPSBURG STUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BALLARD, SCOTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PHILLIPS COUNTY HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Phillipsburg'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 Phillipsburg.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Phillipsburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Phillipsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Phillipsburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Phillipsburg, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Phillipsburg. 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 Phillipsburg
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 Phillipsburg average
Your land is one point inside Phillipsburg
Everything above resolves to Phillipsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Phillipsburg Average
Phillipsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Phillipsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Phillipsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Phillipsburg's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Phillipsburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Phillipsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Phillipsburg, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Phillipsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Phillipsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Phillipsburg average
How we know this about Phillipsburg
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 Phillipsburg’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 Phillipsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Phillipsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Phillipsburg typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Phillipsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Phillipsburg 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Phillipsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Phillipsburg sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 9, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Phillipsburg?
The federal record around Phillipsburg shows 106 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), 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 Phillipsburg?
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 Phillipsburg's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Phillipsburg'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 Phillipsburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Phillipsburg's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,089 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Phillipsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Phillipsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 23 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Phillipsburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Phillipsburg's boundary and the 1,089 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Phillipsburg's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Phillipsburg's 1,089 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phillips County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phillips 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 Phillips County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Phillipsburg's 1,089 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Phillipsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,089 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 Phillipsburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasPhillipsburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.