Sun City, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Sun 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 Sun 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 Sun City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sun City — the short answer
Sun City, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 93 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 93 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 Sun City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sun City's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sun City
Each reading below is measured for Sun City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSun City runs about 213 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
MeasuredSun 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 Sun City is in
Sun City sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sun City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barber County.
What Grows in Sun City
Every plant below cleared Sun City's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sun City?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Sun City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sun City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 31S 15W 01DBB 01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 30S 15W 34DA 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 30S 15W 24DAB 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- NATIONAL GYPSUM COMPANYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 31S 14W 09AAA 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 30S 15W 12BC 01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- THE CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 31S 15W 32BD 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 31S 14W 14AB 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 30S 16W 23CAA 01Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- 29S 15W 34AAA 01Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- 29S 15W 27DDD 01Nitrate · 7.4 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sun 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 Sun City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sun City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sun City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sun City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Sun City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Sun 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 Sun City average
Your land is one point inside Sun City
Everything above resolves to Sun City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 93 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 Sun City Average
Sun City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sun City
- ●One soil character for all of Sun City
- ●Frost dates read at Sun City's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sun City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sun City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sun City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sun City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sun City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sun City average
How we know this about Sun 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 Sun 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 Sun City
When does frost risk typically end in Sun City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sun City typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Sun City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sun 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sun City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sun City sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sun City?
The federal record around Sun City is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sun 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 Sun City's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sun 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 Sun City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sun City's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 93 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sun City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sun City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sun City, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sun City's boundary and the 93 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sun City's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sun City's 93 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barber County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barber 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 Barber County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sun City's 93 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sun 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 93 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Sun City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasSun City sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.