Ash Grove, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ash Grove, 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 Ash Grove 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 Ash Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ash Grove — the short answer
Ash Grove, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 854 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 854 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 6b is Ash Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ash Grove's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ash Grove
Each reading below is measured for Ash Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAsh Grove runs about 221 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
MeasuredAsh Grove sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Ash Grove is in
Ash Grove sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ash Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Ash Grove
Every plant below cleared Ash Grove's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ash Grove?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Ash Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ash Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN'S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SURBURBAN BROKERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JETT'S SERVICE (AMOCO)Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SHARP'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- NEW STORE 2 LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- T30N R24W 21CBA1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- ASH GROVE EAGLE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UnknownMining · 1800 ft
- HAROLD R. GAYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MFA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- T30N R24W 22CBC1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Pennsylvania Company'sS ShaftMining · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ash Grove'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 Ash Grove.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Ash Grove
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ash Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ash Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ash Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ash Grove — Mining (16 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ash Grove
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 Ash Grove average
Your land is one point inside Ash Grove
Everything above resolves to Ash Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 854 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 Ash Grove Average
Ash Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ash Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Ash Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Ash Grove's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ash Grove's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ash Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ash Grove, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ash Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ash Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ash Grove average
How we know this about Ash Grove
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 Ash Grove’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 Ash Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Ash Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ash Grove typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Ash Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ash Grove typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ash Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ash Grove sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ash Grove?
The federal record around Ash Grove runs heavier than most — 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ash Grove?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ash Grove's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ash Grove'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 Ash Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ash Grove's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 854 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ash Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ash Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ash Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ash Grove's boundary and the 854 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ash Grove's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ash Grove's 854 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ash Grove's 854 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ash Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 854 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ash Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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