Topeka, 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 Topeka, 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 Topeka 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 Topeka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Topeka — the short answer
Topeka, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 40K 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 40K 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 Topeka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Topeka's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Topeka
Each reading below is measured for Topeka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTopeka 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
MeasuredTopeka 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 Topeka is in
Topeka sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Topeka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shawnee County.
What Grows in Topeka
Every plant below cleared Topeka'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 Topeka?
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 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 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.
What's on the federal record near Topeka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Topeka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KWIK SHOP #788Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KANSAS BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION-FORENSIC SCIENCE CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- WASHBURN LAW BUILDINGBrownfields · 1500 ft
- WASHBURN UNIVERSITY-FAC SERVICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FAIRWAY OIL #402Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KANG-190TH ARW/EMOToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- FORMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 3621Brownfields · 1900 ft
- OL MAC MOTORSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- HAAG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BERGMAN AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BERGMAN AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Topeka'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 Topeka.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Topeka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Topeka
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 Topeka
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 Topeka average
Your land is one point inside Topeka
Everything above resolves to Topeka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 40K 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 Topeka Average
Topeka Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Topeka
- ●One soil character for all of Topeka
- ●Frost dates read at Topeka's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Topeka's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Topeka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Topeka, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Topeka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Topeka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Topeka average
How we know this about Topeka
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 Topeka’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 Topeka
When does frost risk typically end in Topeka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Topeka 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 Topeka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Topeka 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 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Topeka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Topeka sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 18, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Topeka?
The federal record around Topeka is a meaningful one — 1,076 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (588), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Topeka?
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 Topeka's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Topeka'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 Topeka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Topeka's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 39,614 acres it covers and 1,076 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Topeka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Topeka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 1 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,076 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Topeka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Topeka's boundary and the 39,614 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 Topeka's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Topeka's 39,614 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 Topeka's 39,614 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Topeka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 39,614 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 Topeka-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasTopeka sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides