Protection, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Protection, 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 Protection 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 Protection — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Protection — the short answer
Protection, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 593 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 593 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 Protection's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Protection's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Protection
Each reading below is measured for Protection itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredProtection runs about 208 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
MeasuredProtection 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 Protection is in
Protection sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Protection's own centroid rather than borrowed from Comanche County.
What Grows in Protection
Every plant below cleared Protection's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Protection?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Protection
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Protection. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FILSON MFG CO INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- LOUCK'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FILLING STATION, THEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JOHNS AUTO & BODYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 33S 20W 03BAC 01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- WEBSTER REPAIRBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 33S 20W 03BAB 01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 33S 20W 03BAB 02Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 32S 20W 34DCD 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 32S 20W 34CDC 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- COUNTRY STOP, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Protection'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 Protection.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Protection
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Protection
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Protection
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Protection, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Protection. 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 Protection
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 Protection average
Your land is one point inside Protection
Everything above resolves to Protection as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 593 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 Protection Average
Protection Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Protection
- ●One soil character for all of Protection
- ●Frost dates read at Protection's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Protection's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Protection
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Protection, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Protection averages can't show:
We read public map data around Protection — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Protection average
How we know this about Protection
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 Protection’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 Protection
When does frost risk typically end in Protection?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Protection typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Protection?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Protection typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Protection?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Protection sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Protection?
The federal record around Protection shows 55 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Brownfields 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 Protection?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Protection's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Protection'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 Protection’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Protection's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 593 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Protection's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Protection's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 30 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Protection, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Protection's boundary and the 593 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Protection's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Protection's 593 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Comanche County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Comanche 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 Comanche County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Protection's 593 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Protection you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 593 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Protection-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasProtection sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides