Lawson, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Lawson, 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 Lawson 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 Lawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lawson — the short answer
Lawson, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Lawson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawson's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lawson
Each reading below is measured for Lawson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLawson runs about 211 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
MeasuredLawson 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 Lawson is in
Lawson sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lawson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clay County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lawson
Every plant below cleared Lawson's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lawson?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Lawson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lawson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLES HUGHES PAYLESS SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PHILLIS PHIPPS AUTOMOTIVE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1283Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CATES SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JUDYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WATKINS MILL STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BRIANT OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KCDA NIKE BATTERY 10Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KCDA (EX) NIKE BATTERY 10Superfund · 2.3 mi
- MANEY'S INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- WINLAND FOODS INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
- EXCELSIOR SPRINGS MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawson'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 Lawson.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Lawson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lawson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lawson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawson, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Lawson. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lawson
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 Lawson average
Your land is one point inside Lawson
Everything above resolves to Lawson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Lawson Average
Lawson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lawson
- ●One soil character for all of Lawson
- ●Frost dates read at Lawson's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawson's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lawson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawson, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawson average
How we know this about Lawson
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 Lawson’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 Lawson
When does frost risk typically end in Lawson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawson typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Lawson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lawson typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lawson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawson sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawson?
The federal record around Lawson is a meaningful one — 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Lawson?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lawson's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawson'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 Lawson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lawson's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,896 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lawson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lawson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lawson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lawson's boundary and the 1,896 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lawson sits in the Central Irregular 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 Lawson's 1,896 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lawson's 1,896 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lawson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,896 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Lawson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLawson sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides