Goodman, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goodman, 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 Goodman 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 Goodman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goodman — the short answer
Goodman, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 849 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 849 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 7a is Goodman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goodman's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goodman
Each reading below is measured for Goodman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoodman runs about 226 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
MeasuredGoodman sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Goodman is in
Goodman sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goodman's own centroid rather than borrowed from McDonald County.
What Grows in Goodman
Every plant below cleared Goodman's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goodman?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Goodman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goodman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEOSHO R-V SCHOOLS/GOODMAN ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- T23N R32W 08BDA1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- T23N R32W 08ACC1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- COOPER FURNITURE INDUSTRY INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1491Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Unknown - Lead & Zinc & IronMining · 1.4 mi
- C MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MO MC 7Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- M-64 ANDERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- FUDS B07MOO13803 / TALBOT INDUSTRIES INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- BOEING COMPANY THE POOLS PRAIRIE SITEBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- POOLS PRAIRIESuperfund · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goodman'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 Goodman.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goodman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goodman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goodman, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Goodman — CAFO (8 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Goodman
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 Goodman average
Your land is one point inside Goodman
Everything above resolves to Goodman as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 849 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 Goodman Average
Goodman Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Goodman
- ●One soil character for all of Goodman
- ●Frost dates read at Goodman's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goodman's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goodman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goodman, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goodman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goodman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goodman average
How we know this about Goodman
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 Goodman’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 Goodman
When does frost risk typically end in Goodman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goodman typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Goodman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goodman typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goodman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goodman sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 25, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goodman?
The federal record around Goodman is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Goodman?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goodman's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goodman'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 Goodman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goodman's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 849 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goodman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goodman's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 8 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goodman, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goodman's boundary and the 849 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goodman's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goodman's 849 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McDonald County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McDonald 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 McDonald County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goodman's 849 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goodman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 849 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Goodman-wide figureread your own land →
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