Higbee, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Higbee, 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 Higbee 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 Higbee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Higbee — the short answer
Higbee, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 253 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 253 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 Higbee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Higbee's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Higbee
Each reading below is measured for Higbee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHigbee runs about 223 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
MeasuredHigbee 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 Higbee is in
Higbee sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Higbee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Randolph County.
What Grows in Higbee
Every plant below cleared Higbee's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Higbee?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. 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.
Documented around Higbee
Survey cells within 31 miles of Higbee checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 282 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Higbee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Higbee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HICKENS LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- HIGBEE SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HIGBEE R-VIII SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1133Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN RAILWAY COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- UCE RECLAMATION PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- MOBERLY CORRECTIONAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- SILVER CREEK PIGS INC.CAFO · 5.5 mi
- MOBERLY WOOD TREATINGBrownfields · 5.8 mi
- SANU INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- MOBERLY CORRECTIONAL CENTERBrownfields · 7.9 mi
- TRANSPORTATION BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Higbee'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 Higbee.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Higbee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Higbee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Higbee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Higbee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Higbee — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Higbee
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 Higbee average
Your land is one point inside Higbee
Everything above resolves to Higbee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 253 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 Higbee Average
Higbee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Higbee
- ●One soil character for all of Higbee
- ●Frost dates read at Higbee's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Higbee's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Higbee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Higbee, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Higbee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Higbee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Higbee average
How we know this about Higbee
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 Higbee’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 Higbee
When does frost risk typically end in Higbee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Higbee typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Higbee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Higbee 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Higbee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Higbee sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Higbee?
The federal record around Higbee is a meaningful one — 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), 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 Higbee?
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 Higbee's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Higbee'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 Higbee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Higbee's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 253 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Higbee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Higbee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Higbee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Higbee's boundary and the 253 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Higbee's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Higbee checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Higbee's 253 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Randolph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Randolph 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 Randolph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Higbee's 253 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Higbee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 253 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 Higbee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriHigbee sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides