Wayside, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wayside, 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 Wayside 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 Wayside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wayside — the short answer
Wayside, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 110 acres of town.
- 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 110 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 Wayside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wayside's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wayside
Each reading below is measured for Wayside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWayside runs about 224 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
MeasuredWayside 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 Wayside is in
Wayside sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wayside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Wayside
Every plant below cleared Wayside's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wayside?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 7 — 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 Wayside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wayside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 33S 14E 34AD 01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 34S 14E 16AB 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 34S 14E 11DDD 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 34S 14E 12DD 01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 33S 13E 36CA 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 33S 14E 14BB 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 33S 14E 14AB 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- PATTERSON FARMS/ FIDELITY ENERGY/JOHN N. DENMANCAFO · 4.6 mi
- 34S 14E 19CBB 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 34S 14E 30BCB 01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 34S 14E 25DA 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- REDBARN PIPE & SUPPLYBrownfields · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wayside'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 Wayside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wayside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wayside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wayside, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wayside — Superfund (7 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wayside
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 Wayside average
Your land is one point inside Wayside
Everything above resolves to Wayside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 110 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 Wayside Average
Wayside Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wayside
- ●One soil character for all of Wayside
- ●Frost dates read at Wayside's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wayside's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wayside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wayside, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wayside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wayside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wayside average
How we know this about Wayside
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 Wayside’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 Wayside
When does frost risk typically end in Wayside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wayside 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 Wayside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wayside typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wayside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wayside sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 24, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wayside?
The federal record around Wayside is a meaningful one — 105 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Wayside?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wayside's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wayside'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 Wayside’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wayside's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 110 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wayside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wayside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 7 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wayside, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wayside's boundary and the 110 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wayside's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wayside's 110 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wayside's 110 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wayside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 110 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Wayside-wide figureread your own land →