Yale, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Yale, 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 Yale 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 Yale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yale — the short answer
Yale, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 636 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 636 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 Yale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yale's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yale
Each reading below is measured for Yale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYale runs about 228 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
MeasuredYale 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 Yale is in
Yale sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Yale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Yale
Every plant below cleared Yale's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yale?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Yale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 29S 25E 22AD 01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 29S 25E 22BD 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- STATE LINE PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FRONTENAC GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- well OZC-5Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- FRONTENAC, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- WISEMANS DISCOUNT TIRES INCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- RAIDER EXPRESS, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SAIAS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- 30S 25E 09BBB 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 30S 25E 09BBB 02Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- FRONTENAC, CITY OFPFAS · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yale'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 Yale.
Total Sites
226
within ~10 miles of Yale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Yale — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Yale
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 Yale average
Your land is one point inside Yale
Everything above resolves to Yale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 636 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 Yale Average
Yale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Yale
- ●One soil character for all of Yale
- ●Frost dates read at Yale's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yale's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yale, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yale average
How we know this about Yale
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 Yale’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 Yale
When does frost risk typically end in Yale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yale typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Yale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yale typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yale sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yale?
The federal record around Yale is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Yale?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yale's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yale'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 Yale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yale's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 636 acres it covers and 226 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 226 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yale, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yale's boundary and the 636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yale's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yale's 636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yale's 636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 636 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Yale-wide figureread your own land →