Sharon Springs, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Sharon Springs, 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 Sharon Springs 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 Sharon Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sharon Springs — the short answer
Sharon Springs, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 578 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 578 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 Sharon Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sharon Springs's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sharon Springs
Each reading below is measured for Sharon Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSharon Springs runs about 184 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
MeasuredSharon Springs 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 Sharon Springs is in
Sharon Springs sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sharon Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wallace County.
What Grows in Sharon Springs
Every plant below cleared Sharon Springs's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sharon Springs?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Sharon Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sharon Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHARON SPRINGS BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DINKEL TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GAYLON WHITE TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- COWLES MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALKER FERTILIZER &Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SHARON SPRINGS, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 13S 40W 27DCA 02Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 13S 40W 27CDA 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 13S 40W 27CDB 01Nitrate · 1800 ft
- SHARON SPRINGS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- USD #241Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 13S 40W 27CCD 01Nitrate · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sharon Springs'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 Sharon Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sharon Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sharon Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sharon Springs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Sharon Springs. 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 Sharon Springs
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 Sharon Springs average
Your land is one point inside Sharon Springs
Everything above resolves to Sharon Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 578 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 Sharon Springs Average
Sharon Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sharon Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Sharon Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Sharon Springs's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sharon Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sharon Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sharon Springs, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sharon Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sharon Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sharon Springs average
How we know this about Sharon Springs
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 Sharon Springs’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 Sharon Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Sharon Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sharon Springs typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Sharon Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sharon Springs typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sharon Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sharon Springs sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 6, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sharon Springs?
The federal record around Sharon Springs shows 66 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sharon Springs?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sharon Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sharon Springs'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 Sharon Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sharon Springs's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 578 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sharon Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sharon Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 20 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sharon Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sharon Springs's boundary and the 578 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sharon Springs's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sharon Springs's 578 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wallace County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wallace 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 Wallace County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sharon Springs's 578 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sharon Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 578 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sharon Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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