Barnard, Missouri, 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 Barnard, 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 Barnard 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 Barnard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnard — the short answer
Barnard, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 97 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 97 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 Barnard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnard's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnard
Each reading below is measured for Barnard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnard runs about 208 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
MeasuredBarnard 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 Barnard is in
Barnard sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Barnard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nodaway County.
What Grows in Barnard
Every plant below cleared Barnard's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Barnard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JENSEN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- WOLF GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- T62N R35W 15DCB1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- BARNARD MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FERTILIZER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALTON FARMS & CONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- COLLINS CORNER SERVICE (TOTAL)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- T61N R35W 03CDC1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- T61N R35W 10DAC1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- SHOP & HOP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- T61N R35W 28CBB1Nitrate · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnard'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 Barnard.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Barnard
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnard, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Barnard. 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 Barnard
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 Barnard average
Your land is one point inside Barnard
Everything above resolves to Barnard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 97 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 Barnard Average
Barnard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Barnard
- ●One soil character for all of Barnard
- ●Frost dates read at Barnard's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnard, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnard average
How we know this about Barnard
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 Barnard’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 Barnard
When does frost risk typically end in Barnard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnard typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Barnard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnard typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnard sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnard?
The federal record around Barnard is light — 28 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Barnard?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnard's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnard'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 Barnard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Barnard's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 97 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 31 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnard's boundary and the 97 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnard'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 Barnard's 97 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nodaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nodaway 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 Nodaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnard's 97 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 97 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 Barnard-wide figureread your own land →