Tampa, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Tampa, 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 Tampa 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 Tampa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tampa — the short answer
Tampa, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 114 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- 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
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 114 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 Tampa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tampa's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tampa
Each reading below is measured for Tampa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTampa runs about 214 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
MeasuredTampa 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 Tampa is in
Tampa sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tampa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Tampa
Every plant below cleared Tampa's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tampa?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (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. 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 Tampa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tampa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TAMPA COOP ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CARDIE OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 17S 03E 20DC 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- JOHN HAJEKCAFO · 3.4 mi
- 17S 02E 28BB 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- COW CAMP FEEDYARDCAFO · 5.3 mi
- 16S 02E 33DCC 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- COFFEE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- DONAHUE CORPToxics Release Inventory · 5.6 mi
- AGRI TRAILS COOP-DURHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- RAMONA GARAGE & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- 18S 03E 24D 01Nitrate · 8.1 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tampa'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 Tampa.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Tampa
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tampa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tampa
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Tampa
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 Tampa average
Your land is one point inside Tampa
Everything above resolves to Tampa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 114 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 Tampa Average
Tampa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tampa
- ●One soil character for all of Tampa
- ●Frost dates read at Tampa's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tampa's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tampa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tampa, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tampa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tampa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tampa average
How we know this about Tampa
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 Tampa’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 Tampa
When does frost risk typically end in Tampa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tampa typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Tampa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tampa 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 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tampa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tampa sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tampa?
The federal record around Tampa is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tampa?
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 Tampa's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tampa'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 Tampa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tampa's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 114 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tampa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tampa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tampa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tampa's boundary and the 114 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tampa's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tampa's 114 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tampa's 114 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tampa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 114 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 Tampa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasTampa sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides