Waldron, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Waldron, 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 Waldron 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 Waldron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waldron — the short answer
Waldron, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 199 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 199 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 7a is Waldron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waldron's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waldron
Each reading below is measured for Waldron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaldron runs about 227 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
MeasuredWaldron sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Waldron is in
Waldron sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Waldron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harper County.
What Grows in Waldron
Every plant below cleared Waldron's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waldron?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Waldron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waldron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 29N-09W-19 DAB 1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- BURNET FARMSCAFO · 5.5 mi
- 28N-10W-24 ABA 1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- MANCHESTER MFG COBrownfields · 7.9 mi
- State Line Grain Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- 29N-08W-14 B 1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 28N-10W-22 A 1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 28N-10W-22 AC 1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 35S 09W 05BBB 01Nitrate · 8.4 mi
- FARMERS COOP BUS ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- 34S 07W 08AAA 01Nitrate · 8.8 mi
- Martin BondUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waldron'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 Waldron.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Waldron
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waldron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waldron
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.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Waldron
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 Waldron average
Your land is one point inside Waldron
Everything above resolves to Waldron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 199 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 Waldron Average
Waldron Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Waldron
- ●One soil character for all of Waldron
- ●Frost dates read at Waldron's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waldron's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waldron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waldron, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waldron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waldron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waldron average
How we know this about Waldron
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 Waldron’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 Waldron
When does frost risk typically end in Waldron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waldron typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Waldron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waldron typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waldron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waldron sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 27, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waldron?
The federal record around Waldron is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.3 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 Waldron?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waldron's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waldron'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 Waldron’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Waldron's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 199 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waldron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waldron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 10 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waldron, the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waldron's boundary and the 199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waldron's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Waldron's 199 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harper 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 Harper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waldron's 199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waldron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 199 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 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 Waldron-wide figureread your own land →