Ellington, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ellington, 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 Ellington 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 Ellington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ellington — the short answer
Ellington, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 936 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 936 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 Ellington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellington's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellington
Each reading below is measured for Ellington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllington runs about 209 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
MeasuredEllington 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 Ellington is in
Ellington sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ellington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Reynolds County.
What Grows in Ellington
Every plant below cleared Ellington's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellington?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 29 — 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.
Documented around Ellington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ellington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 249 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ellington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELLINGTON SUB-OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- T30N R01E 32CAA1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- HANGER BROS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- THE 4 WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- T30N R01E 32DCD1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- T30N R01E 32BDA1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- ELLINGTON MAINTENANCE LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHERN REYNOLDS COUNTY R-II SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TWENTY ONE 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SCOTT TIE CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- ELLINGTON PWSPFAS · 2.9 mi
- T29N R01W 10BANitrate · 4.1 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellington'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 Ellington.
Total Sites
19
within ~10 miles of Ellington
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellington
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Ellington
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 Ellington average
Your land is one point inside Ellington
Everything above resolves to Ellington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 936 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 Ellington Average
Ellington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ellington
- ●One soil character for all of Ellington
- ●Frost dates read at Ellington's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellington's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellington, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellington average
How we know this about Ellington
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 Ellington’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 Ellington
When does frost risk typically end in Ellington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellington 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 Ellington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellington typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellington sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 15, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellington?
The federal record around Ellington is light — 19 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ellington?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ellington's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellington'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 Ellington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ellington's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 936 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 29 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellington's boundary and the 936 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ellington's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ellington 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 Ellington's 936 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Reynolds County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Reynolds 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 Reynolds County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellington's 936 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 936 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ellington-wide figureread your own land →
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