Strong City, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Strong City, 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 Strong City 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 Strong City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Strong City — the short answer
Strong City, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 351 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 351 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 Strong City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strong City's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strong City
Each reading below is measured for Strong City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStrong City runs about 215 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
MeasuredStrong City 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 Strong City is in
Strong City sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Strong City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chase County.
What Grows in Strong City
Every plant below cleared Strong City's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strong City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Strong City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strong City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STRONG CITY RAILYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- QUIK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DIEKER OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 19S 08E 20AAA 02Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 19S 08E 20AAA 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- FLINT HILLS ONE STOP BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 19S 08E 21BBDA01Nitrate · 2200 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CHASE COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FAA-QBL RMLRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LMI AEROSPACE COTTONWOOD FALLS, KSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- COTTONWOOD FALLS, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strong City'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 Strong City.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Strong City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strong City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strong City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strong City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Strong City. 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 Strong City
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 Strong City average
Your land is one point inside Strong City
Everything above resolves to Strong City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 351 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 Strong City Average
Strong City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Strong City
- ●One soil character for all of Strong City
- ●Frost dates read at Strong City's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strong City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strong City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strong City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strong City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strong City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strong City average
How we know this about Strong City
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 Strong City’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 Strong City
When does frost risk typically end in Strong City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strong City typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Strong City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strong City typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strong City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strong City sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 19, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strong City?
The federal record around Strong City shows 70 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), 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 Strong City?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strong City's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strong City'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 Strong City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Strong City's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 351 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strong City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strong City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strong City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strong City's boundary and the 351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strong City's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strong City's 351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chase County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chase 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 Chase County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strong City's 351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strong City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 351 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 Strong City-wide figureread your own land →
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