Berkeley, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Berkeley, 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 Berkeley 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 Berkeley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berkeley — the short answer
Berkeley, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Berkeley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berkeley's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berkeley
Each reading below is measured for Berkeley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerkeley runs about 245 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
MeasuredBerkeley 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 Berkeley is in
Berkeley sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Berkeley's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Berkeley
Every plant below cleared Berkeley's own zone 7a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berkeley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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.
Documented around Berkeley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Berkeley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 237 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Berkeley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berkeley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF BERKELEY CENTRAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BERKELEY POLICE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ALADDIN INSULATION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PETRO MART #72Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DRIVE IN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CUSTOM CARRIAGEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- GATE GOURMETBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BOLCH 75Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AMOCO OIL SS #9731Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ZZYX OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HARTOG OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berkeley'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 Berkeley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berkeley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berkeley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berkeley, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 266 sites within ~10 miles of Berkeley. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Berkeley
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 Berkeley average
Your land is one point inside Berkeley
Everything above resolves to Berkeley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Berkeley Average
Berkeley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Berkeley
- ●One soil character for all of Berkeley
- ●Frost dates read at Berkeley's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berkeley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berkeley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berkeley, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berkeley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berkeley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berkeley average
How we know this about Berkeley
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 Berkeley’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 Berkeley
When does frost risk typically end in Berkeley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berkeley typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Berkeley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berkeley typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berkeley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berkeley sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 6, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berkeley?
The federal record around Berkeley is a meaningful one — 3,330 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,997), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Berkeley?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Berkeley's scale — its 7a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berkeley'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 Berkeley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Berkeley's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,175 acres it covers and 3,330 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berkeley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berkeley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 20 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,330 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berkeley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berkeley's boundary and the 3,175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berkeley's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Berkeley checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berkeley's 3,175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis 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 St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berkeley's 3,175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berkeley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,175 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Berkeley-wide figureread your own land →
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