Zenda, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Zenda, 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 Zenda 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 Zenda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Zenda — the short answer
Zenda, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 143 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 143 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 Zenda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zenda's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Zenda
Each reading below is measured for Zenda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredZenda runs about 216 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
MeasuredZenda 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 Zenda is in
Zenda sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Zenda's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kingman County.
What Grows in Zenda
Every plant below cleared Zenda's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Zenda?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Zenda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Zenda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMERS COOP EQUITY CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BLASIS SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- USD #332-ZENDA GRADE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 30S 09W 10ADC 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 30S 09W 22DB 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 29S 09W 35CCB 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 30S 09W 28BCAB01 CQS-110Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- B & H TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- DRESSER OIL TOOLSBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- B H P PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- SPIVEY COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- 29S 10W 24BC 01Nitrate · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zenda'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 Zenda.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Zenda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Zenda, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Zenda. 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 Zenda
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 Zenda average
Your land is one point inside Zenda
Everything above resolves to Zenda as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 143 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 Zenda Average
Zenda Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Zenda
- ●One soil character for all of Zenda
- ●Frost dates read at Zenda's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zenda's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Zenda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zenda, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zenda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zenda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zenda average
How we know this about Zenda
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 Zenda’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 Zenda
When does frost risk typically end in Zenda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zenda typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Zenda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Zenda typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Zenda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zenda sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 21, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Zenda?
The federal record around Zenda is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Zenda?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Zenda's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zenda'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 Zenda’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Zenda's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 143 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zenda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zenda's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 4 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Zenda, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Zenda's boundary and the 143 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Zenda's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Zenda's 143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kingman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kingman 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 Kingman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Zenda's 143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Zenda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 143 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Zenda-wide figureread your own land →