Radley, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Radley, 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 Radley 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 Radley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Radley — the short answer
Radley, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 483 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 483 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 7a is Radley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Radley's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Radley
Each reading below is measured for Radley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRadley runs about 231 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
MeasuredRadley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Radley is in
Radley sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Radley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Radley
Every plant below cleared Radley's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Radley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Radley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Radley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 30S 24E 02DDD 01 CRAWFORD CO RWD1CNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 30S 24E 01 01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 30S 24E 01AC 01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- TRIPLE T FOODSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- SUGAR CREEK PACKING COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
- WISEMANS DISCOUNT TIRES INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- SAIAS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- 30S 24E 15AAB 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- PITTSBURG FORDBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- PITTSBURG, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PROGRESSIVE PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- GIRARD GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Radley'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 Radley.
Total Sites
246
within ~10 miles of Radley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Radley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Radley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Radley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Radley — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Radley
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 Radley average
Your land is one point inside Radley
Everything above resolves to Radley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 483 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 town 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 Radley Average
Radley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Radley
- ●One soil character for all of Radley
- ●Frost dates read at Radley's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Radley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Radley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Radley, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Radley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Radley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Radley average
How we know this about Radley
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Radley’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Radley
When does frost risk typically end in Radley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Radley typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Radley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Radley typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Radley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Radley sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 29, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Radley?
The federal record around Radley is a meaningful one — 246 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Radley?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Radley's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Radley'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 Radley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Radley's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 483 acres it covers and 246 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Radley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Radley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 12 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 246 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Radley, the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Radley's boundary and the 483 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Radley's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Radley's 483 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Radley's 483 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Radley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 483 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Radley-wide figureread your own land →