Tecumseh, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Tecumseh, 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 Tecumseh 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 Tecumseh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tecumseh — the short answer
Tecumseh, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Tecumseh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tecumseh's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tecumseh
Each reading below is measured for Tecumseh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTecumseh 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
MeasuredTecumseh 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 Tecumseh is in
Tecumseh sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tecumseh's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shawnee County.
What Grows in Tecumseh
Every plant below cleared Tecumseh'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 Tecumseh?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
Documented around Tecumseh
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tecumseh checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 428 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tecumseh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tecumseh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USD #450, TECUMSEH NORTH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- EVERGY INC - TECUMSEH ENERGY CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- TECUMSEH ENERGY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SHAWNEE HEIGHT FIRE DIST.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FUTAMURA USA, INC.Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- FUTAMURA USA, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- KWIK SHOP #780Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- TECUMSEH TOWNSHIPBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- TECUMSEH TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- KWIK STOP #9Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- COREFIRST BANK & TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GRAHAM SHIP-BY-TRUCK COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tecumseh'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 Tecumseh.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tecumseh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tecumseh
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Tecumseh
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 Tecumseh average
Your land is one point inside Tecumseh
Everything above resolves to Tecumseh as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 town 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 Tecumseh Average
Tecumseh Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tecumseh
- ●One soil character for all of Tecumseh
- ●Frost dates read at Tecumseh's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tecumseh's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tecumseh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tecumseh, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tecumseh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tecumseh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tecumseh average
How we know this about Tecumseh
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Tecumseh’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Tecumseh
When does frost risk typically end in Tecumseh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tecumseh typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Tecumseh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tecumseh typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tecumseh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tecumseh sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 18, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tecumseh?
The federal record around Tecumseh is a meaningful one — 1,044 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (575), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tecumseh?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tecumseh's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tecumseh'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 Tecumseh’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tecumseh's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,284 acres it covers and 1,044 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tecumseh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tecumseh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 1 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,044 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tecumseh, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tecumseh's boundary and the 2,284 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 Tecumseh's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tecumseh checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tecumseh's 2,284 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shawnee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shawnee 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 Shawnee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tecumseh's 2,284 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tecumseh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,284 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Tecumseh-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasTecumseh sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides