Fair Grove, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fair 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 Fair 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 Fair Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fair Grove — the short answer
Fair Grove, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Fair Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fair Grove's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fair Grove
Each reading below is measured for Fair Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFair Grove runs about 222 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
MeasuredFair 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 Fair Grove is in
Fair Grove sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fair Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Fair Grove
Every plant below cleared Fair Grove's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fair 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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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 Fair Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fair Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIR GROVE SERVICEBrownfields · 300 ft
- KUM & GO #435Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BREEDLOVE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SOUTHWESTERN BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- T31N R20W 29DAB1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- T31N R20W 29CAB1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- FAIR GROVE MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- MODOTBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Bullwinkle MineMining · 3.5 mi
- UnknownMining · 3.8 mi
- T30N R20W 17ACB1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- KUDER TRANSPORT LLCBrownfields · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fair 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 Fair Grove.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Fair Grove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fair Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fair Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fair Grove, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Fair Grove. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Fair 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 Fair Grove average
Your land is one point inside Fair Grove
Everything above resolves to Fair Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Fair Grove Average
Fair Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fair Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Fair Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Fair Grove's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fair Grove's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fair Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fair Grove, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fair Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fair Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fair Grove average
How we know this about Fair 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 Fair 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 Fair Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Fair Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fair Grove typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Fair Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fair 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fair Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fair Grove sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 23, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fair Grove?
The federal record around Fair Grove is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fair 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 Fair Grove's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fair 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 Fair Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fair Grove's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,040 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fair Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fair Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 6 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fair Grove, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fair Grove's boundary and the 2,040 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fair Grove's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fair Grove's 2,040 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 Fair Grove's 2,040 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fair 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 2,040 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fair Grove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Growing region
Nearby growing guides