Avalon, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Avalon, 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 Avalon 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 Avalon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Avalon — the short answer
Avalon, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 481 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 481 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 Avalon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avalon's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avalon
Each reading below is measured for Avalon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvalon runs about 210 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
MeasuredAvalon 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 Avalon is in
Avalon sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Avalon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston County.
What Grows in Avalon
Every plant below cleared Avalon's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avalon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Avalon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avalon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T55N R23W 15ABC1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- TINA REPEATER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- R STORE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- GREEN'S BLUE MOUND QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- T55N R22W 11AAB2Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- T55N R22W 11AAB1Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- MORTON BUILDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- IRELAND FARMSCAFO · 7.2 mi
- T57N R22W 36CAA1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- FOUNTAIN GROVE WILDLIFE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- TINA OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- T57N R23W 08CDA1Nitrate · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avalon'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 Avalon.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Avalon
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avalon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avalon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avalon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Avalon — Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Avalon
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 Avalon average
Your land is one point inside Avalon
Everything above resolves to Avalon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 481 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 Avalon Average
Avalon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Avalon
- ●One soil character for all of Avalon
- ●Frost dates read at Avalon's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avalon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avalon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avalon, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avalon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avalon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avalon average
How we know this about Avalon
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 Avalon’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 Avalon
When does frost risk typically end in Avalon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avalon typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Avalon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avalon typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avalon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avalon sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 16, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avalon?
The federal record around Avalon is light — 48 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 5.4 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 Avalon?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avalon's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avalon'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 Avalon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Avalon's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 481 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avalon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avalon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 30 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avalon, the closest Nitrate record about 5.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avalon's boundary and the 481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avalon's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Avalon's 481 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avalon's 481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avalon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 481 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 5.4 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 Avalon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriAvalon sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.