Frankclay, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Frankclay, 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 Frankclay 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 Frankclay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Frankclay — the short answer
Frankclay, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 404 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- 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
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 404 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 Frankclay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Frankclay's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Frankclay
Each reading below is measured for Frankclay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFrankclay runs about 212 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
MeasuredFrankclay 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 Frankclay is in
Frankclay sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Frankclay's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Francois County.
What Grows in Frankclay
Every plant below cleared Frankclay's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Frankclay?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (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. 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 Frankclay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Frankclay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SGA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Leadwood MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Mine Number Fivefederal LeadMining · 0.8 mi
- Unknown - LeadMining · 0.8 mi
- Schultz Basin GroupMining · 0.9 mi
- LEADWOOD MINE TAILINGSSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- T36N R04E 04DCB1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Mine Number Fivedesloge MinesMining · 1.2 mi
- Mine Number Fourteenst Joe Lead CoMining · 1.2 mi
- Mine Number Twelvest Joe Lead CoMining · 1.2 mi
- T36N R04E 08DBB1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- WEST COUNTY R-IV SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Frankclay'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 Frankclay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Frankclay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Frankclay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Frankclay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Frankclay — Mining (101 sites) and Superfund (13 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Frankclay
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 Frankclay average
Your land is one point inside Frankclay
Everything above resolves to Frankclay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 404 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 Frankclay Average
Frankclay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Frankclay
- ●One soil character for all of Frankclay
- ●Frost dates read at Frankclay's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Frankclay's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Frankclay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Frankclay, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Frankclay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Frankclay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Frankclay average
How we know this about Frankclay
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 Frankclay’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 Frankclay
When does frost risk typically end in Frankclay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Frankclay typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Frankclay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Frankclay 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 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Frankclay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Frankclay sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 17, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Frankclay?
The federal record around Frankclay runs heavier than most — 354 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Frankclay?
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 Frankclay's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Frankclay'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 Frankclay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Frankclay's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 404 acres it covers and 354 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Frankclay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Frankclay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 31 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 354 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Frankclay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Frankclay's boundary and the 404 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Frankclay's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Frankclay's 404 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Francois County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Francois 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. Francois County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Frankclay's 404 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Frankclay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 404 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Frankclay-wide figureread your own land →
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