Gladstone, 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 Gladstone, 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 Gladstone 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 Gladstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gladstone — the short answer
Gladstone, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Gladstone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gladstone's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gladstone
Each reading below is measured for Gladstone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGladstone runs about 219 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
MeasuredGladstone 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 Gladstone is in
Gladstone sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Gladstone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Gladstone
Every plant below cleared Gladstone's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gladstone?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Gladstone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gladstone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KCI KWIK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WAL-MART STORE #1120Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAL-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- QUIKTRIP #237Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GLADSTONE AUTO MART - SOLD IN 1983Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HOUSE OF LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #8554Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- TEXACO REFINING & MARKETING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HY VEE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TEXACO REFINING & MARKETING-CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GLADSTONE GAS N STUFF INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF GLADSTONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gladstone'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 Gladstone.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gladstone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gladstone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gladstone, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 221 sites within ~10 miles of Gladstone. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Gladstone
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 Gladstone average
Your land is one point inside Gladstone
Everything above resolves to Gladstone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Gladstone Average
Gladstone Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Gladstone
- ●One soil character for all of Gladstone
- ●Frost dates read at Gladstone's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gladstone's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gladstone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gladstone, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gladstone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gladstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gladstone average
How we know this about Gladstone
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 Gladstone’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 Gladstone
When does frost risk typically end in Gladstone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gladstone typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Gladstone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gladstone typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gladstone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gladstone sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gladstone?
The federal record around Gladstone runs heavier than most — 2,437 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,194), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Gladstone?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gladstone's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gladstone'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 Gladstone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gladstone's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,171 acres it covers and 2,437 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gladstone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gladstone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,437 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gladstone, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gladstone's boundary and the 5,171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gladstone'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 Gladstone's 5,171 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gladstone's 5,171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gladstone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,171 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Gladstone-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriGladstone sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides