Virgil, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Virgil, 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 Virgil 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 Virgil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Virgil — the short answer
Virgil, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 358 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 358 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 Virgil's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Virgil's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Virgil
Each reading below is measured for Virgil itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVirgil runs about 221 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
MeasuredVirgil 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 Virgil is in
Virgil sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Virgil's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenwood County.
What Grows in Virgil
Every plant below cleared Virgil's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Virgil?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Virgil
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Virgil. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 24S 13E 6CC 02Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 24S 13E 6CC 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- VIRGIL, CITY OFPFAS · 3.8 mi
- 23S 13E 36ABB 01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- ROBISON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- LONG DRILLING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- RJ'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- 24S 11E 11DDD 02Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- 24S 11E 11DDD 01Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- 24S 11E 11DAC 01Nitrate · 8.1 mi
- SCHLOTTERBECK MACHINE SHOPBrownfields · 8.2 mi
- SNYDER, K. LANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Virgil'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 Virgil.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Virgil
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Virgil
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Virgil, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Virgil. 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 Virgil
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 Virgil average
Your land is one point inside Virgil
Everything above resolves to Virgil as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 358 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 Virgil Average
Virgil Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Virgil
- ●One soil character for all of Virgil
- ●Frost dates read at Virgil's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Virgil's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Virgil
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Virgil, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Virgil averages can't show:
We read public map data around Virgil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Virgil average
How we know this about Virgil
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 Virgil’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 Virgil
When does frost risk typically end in Virgil?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Virgil typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Virgil?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Virgil typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Virgil?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Virgil sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Virgil?
The federal record around Virgil shows 28 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Virgil?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Virgil's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Virgil'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 Virgil’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Virgil's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 358 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Virgil's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Virgil's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Virgil, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Virgil's boundary and the 358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Virgil's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Virgil's 358 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenwood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenwood 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 Greenwood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Virgil's 358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Virgil you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Virgil-wide figureread your own land →
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