Leisure Lake, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leisure Lake, 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 Leisure Lake 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 Leisure Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leisure Lake — the short answer
Leisure Lake, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 890 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 890 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 Leisure Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leisure Lake's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leisure Lake
Each reading below is measured for Leisure Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeisure Lake runs about 207 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
MeasuredLeisure Lake 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 Leisure Lake is in
Leisure Lake sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Leisure Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grundy County.
What Grows in Leisure Lake
Every plant below cleared Leisure Lake's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leisure Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Leisure Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leisure Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T61N R25W 22CAB1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- T61N R25W 20DDC1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- T61N R25W 12CCANitrate · 3.5 mi
- SMITHFIELD, SCOTT/COLBY FARMCAFO · 3.7 mi
- T62N R25W 13CBDNitrate · 4.9 mi
- GRUNDY CO 32 (MCHI)Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- TRENTON MUNICIPAL UTILITIES-NW LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- REXING FARMS INCCAFO · 5.5 mi
- FMS 14 & TRENTON ARMORYBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- TRENTON READY MIX NORTHSIDEToxics Release Inventory · 5.9 mi
- WAHOO CONCRETEBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- TNT CONVENIENCE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leisure Lake'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 Leisure Lake.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Leisure Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leisure Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leisure Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leisure Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leisure Lake — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Leisure Lake
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 Leisure Lake average
Your land is one point inside Leisure Lake
Everything above resolves to Leisure Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 890 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 town 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 Leisure Lake Average
Leisure Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leisure Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Leisure Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Leisure Lake's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leisure Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leisure Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leisure Lake, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leisure Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leisure Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leisure Lake average
How we know this about Leisure Lake
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Leisure Lake’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Leisure Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Leisure Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leisure Lake typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Leisure Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leisure Lake typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leisure Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leisure Lake sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leisure Lake?
The federal record around Leisure Lake shows 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Leisure Lake?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leisure Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leisure Lake'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 Leisure Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leisure Lake's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 890 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leisure Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leisure Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leisure Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 3.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leisure Lake's boundary and the 890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leisure Lake's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leisure Lake's 890 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grundy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grundy 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 Grundy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leisure Lake's 890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leisure Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 890 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.2 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 Leisure Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLeisure Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides