Lake Lotawana, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Lotawana, 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 Lake Lotawana 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 Lake Lotawana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Lotawana — the short answer
Lake Lotawana, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 7K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Lake Lotawana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Lotawana's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Lotawana
Each reading below is measured for Lake Lotawana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Lotawana runs about 225 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
MeasuredLake Lotawana 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 Lake Lotawana is in
Lake Lotawana sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Lotawana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Lake Lotawana
Every plant below cleared Lake Lotawana's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Lotawana?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 10 — 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 Lake Lotawana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Lotawana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JACKSON COUNTY PWSD 15PFAS · 0.8 mi
- LEES SUMMIT PWSPFAS · 0.8 mi
- JACKSON COUNTY PWSD 13PFAS · 0.8 mi
- HIGHWAY 7 GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JACKSON ARMORYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- LAKE LOTAWANA SPORTMAN'S CLUBSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- STAFFORD & COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- OZARK READY MIX - SHOW ME READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- CITY OF LAKE LOTAWANA - CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- LOTAWANA FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LAKE LOTAWANA ASSOCIATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- T47N R30W 15Nitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Lotawana'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 Lake Lotawana.
Total Sites
467
within ~10 miles of Lake Lotawana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Lotawana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Lotawana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Lotawana, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Lotawana. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Lotawana
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 Lake Lotawana average
Your land is one point inside Lake Lotawana
Everything above resolves to Lake Lotawana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Lake Lotawana Average
Lake Lotawana Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Lotawana
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Lotawana
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Lotawana's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Lotawana's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Lotawana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Lotawana, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Lotawana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Lotawana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Lotawana average
How we know this about Lake Lotawana
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 Lake Lotawana’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 Lake Lotawana
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Lotawana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Lotawana 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 Lake Lotawana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Lotawana typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Lotawana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Lotawana sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 27, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Lotawana?
The federal record around Lake Lotawana is a meaningful one — 467 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (231), the nearest PFAS record about 0.8 miles 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 Lake Lotawana?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Lotawana's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Lotawana'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 Lake Lotawana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Lotawana's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,608 acres it covers and 467 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Lotawana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Lotawana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 10 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 467 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Lotawana, the closest PFAS record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Lotawana's boundary and the 6,608 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Lotawana's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Lotawana's 6,608 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Lotawana's 6,608 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Lotawana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,608 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.8 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 Lake Lotawana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLake Lotawana sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides