Sylvan Grove, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sylvan Grove, 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 Sylvan Grove 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 Sylvan Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sylvan Grove — the short answer
Sylvan Grove, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 246 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 246 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 Sylvan Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sylvan Grove's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sylvan Grove
Each reading below is measured for Sylvan Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSylvan Grove runs about 204 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
MeasuredSylvan Grove 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 Sylvan Grove is in
Sylvan Grove sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sylvan Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Sylvan Grove
Every plant below cleared Sylvan Grove's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sylvan Grove?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Sylvan Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sylvan Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FELDKAMP BROS. OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KDWP WILSON STATE PARKBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SYLVAN GROVE, CITY OFPFAS · 1700 ft
- 12S 10W 14ACB 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- USD #299Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 12S 10W 14BCC 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 12S 10W 24DDC 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 12S 10W 26BCC 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 12S 10W 21DDD 01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 12S 10W 21DDC 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- MEYER LAND & CATTLE CO.CAFO · 3.1 mi
- 12S 09W 08AAC 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sylvan Grove'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 Sylvan Grove.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Sylvan Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sylvan Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sylvan Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sylvan Grove, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Sylvan Grove. 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 Sylvan Grove
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 Sylvan Grove average
Your land is one point inside Sylvan Grove
Everything above resolves to Sylvan Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 246 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 Sylvan Grove Average
Sylvan Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sylvan Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Sylvan Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Sylvan Grove's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sylvan Grove's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sylvan Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sylvan Grove, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sylvan Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sylvan Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sylvan Grove average
How we know this about Sylvan Grove
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 Sylvan Grove’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 Sylvan Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Sylvan Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sylvan Grove typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Sylvan Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sylvan Grove typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sylvan Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sylvan Grove sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 13, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sylvan Grove?
The federal record around Sylvan Grove shows 100 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sylvan Grove?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sylvan Grove's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sylvan Grove'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 Sylvan Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sylvan Grove's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 246 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sylvan Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sylvan Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 27 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sylvan Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sylvan Grove's boundary and the 246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sylvan Grove's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sylvan Grove's 246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sylvan Grove's 246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sylvan Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 246 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sylvan Grove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasSylvan Grove sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides