La Belle, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in La Belle, 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 La Belle 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 La Belle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Belle — the short answer
La Belle, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 435 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 435 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 6a is La Belle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Belle's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Belle
Each reading below is measured for La Belle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Belle 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
MeasuredLa Belle sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 La Belle is in
La Belle sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Belle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lewis County.
What Grows in La Belle
Every plant below cleared La Belle's own zone 6a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Belle?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 La Belle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Belle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELVINS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2601Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JEY-LIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LA BELLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EDWARDS MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MFA OIL CO LABELLE BULK PLANTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LA BELLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- T61N R09W 10BBA1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- T62N R09W 27BDC1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- NEW GENERATION PORK LLC - SOUTHCAFO · 4.8 mi
- T61N R10W 25DCB1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- NEW GENERATION PORK LLC NORTH BARNCAFO · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Belle'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 La Belle.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of La Belle
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Belle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Belle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Belle, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of La Belle — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in La Belle
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 La Belle average
Your land is one point inside La Belle
Everything above resolves to La Belle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 435 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 La Belle Average
La Belle Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across La Belle
- ●One soil character for all of La Belle
- ●Frost dates read at La Belle's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Belle's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Belle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Belle, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Belle averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Belle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Belle average
How we know this about La Belle
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 La Belle’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 La Belle
When does frost risk typically end in La Belle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Belle typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in La Belle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Belle typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Belle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Belle sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 20, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Belle?
The federal record around La Belle is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 La Belle?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Belle's scale — its 6a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Belle'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 La Belle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Belle's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 435 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Belle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Belle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Belle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Belle's boundary and the 435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Belle's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Belle's 435 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Belle's 435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Belle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 435 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 La Belle-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLa Belle sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides