Willis, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Willis, 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 Willis 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 Willis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willis — the short answer
Willis, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 105 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 105 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 6a is Willis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willis's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willis
Each reading below is measured for Willis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWillis runs about 206 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
MeasuredWillis sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Willis is in
Willis sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Willis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Willis
Every plant below cleared Willis's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willis?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Willis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLATTE PIPE LINE COBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 04S 17E 03CCC 01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AG PARTNERS COOPERATIVE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 04S 17E 11AAA 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 04S 17E 21CCC 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 03S 17E 21CBC 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- HORTON COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- HEADQUARTERS BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- 04S 17E 24DDCC01 SITE 31-3Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willis'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 Willis.
Total Sites
165
within ~10 miles of Willis
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willis, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Willis. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Willis
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 Willis average
Your land is one point inside Willis
Everything above resolves to Willis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 105 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 Willis Average
Willis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Willis
- ●One soil character for all of Willis
- ●Frost dates read at Willis's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willis's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willis, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willis average
How we know this about Willis
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 Willis’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 Willis
When does frost risk typically end in Willis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willis typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Willis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willis typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willis sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 14, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willis?
The federal record around Willis shows 165 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Willis?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willis's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willis'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 Willis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Willis's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 105 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 28 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willis, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willis's boundary and the 105 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willis's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Willis's 105 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willis's 105 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 105 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Willis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasWillis sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides