Glasgow, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Glasgow, 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 Glasgow 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 Glasgow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Glasgow — the short answer
Glasgow, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 862 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 862 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 Glasgow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glasgow's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glasgow
Each reading below is measured for Glasgow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlasgow runs about 217 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
MeasuredGlasgow 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 Glasgow is in
Glasgow sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Glasgow's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Howard County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Glasgow
Every plant below cleared Glasgow's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glasgow?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 2 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Glasgow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glasgow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLASGOW EQUIPMENT CO INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #0079Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JIM'S SUPER SERVICE IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STALLMAN'S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JIM'S SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RUETHER CHEVROLET-BUICK, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PHOENIX MANUFACTURING, LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PHOENIX MANUFACTURING, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- BOB MONNIG INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- BOB MONNIG INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- K & J AUTOBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glasgow'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 Glasgow.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of Glasgow
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glasgow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glasgow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glasgow, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Glasgow. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Glasgow
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 Glasgow average
Your land is one point inside Glasgow
Everything above resolves to Glasgow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 862 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 Glasgow Average
Glasgow Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Glasgow
- ●One soil character for all of Glasgow
- ●Frost dates read at Glasgow's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glasgow's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glasgow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glasgow, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glasgow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glasgow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glasgow average
How we know this about Glasgow
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 Glasgow’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 Glasgow
When does frost risk typically end in Glasgow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glasgow 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 Glasgow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glasgow typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glasgow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glasgow sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 19, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glasgow?
The federal record around Glasgow is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Glasgow?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glasgow's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glasgow'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 Glasgow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Glasgow's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 862 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glasgow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glasgow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 2 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glasgow, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glasgow's boundary and the 862 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Glasgow sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glasgow's 862 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glasgow's 862 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glasgow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 862 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Glasgow-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriGlasgow sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides