Leonard, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leonard, 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 Leonard 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 Leonard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leonard — the short answer
Leonard, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 206 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 206 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 Leonard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leonard's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leonard
Each reading below is measured for Leonard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeonard runs about 214 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
MeasuredLeonard 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 Leonard is in
Leonard sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Leonard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Leonard
Every plant below cleared Leonard's own zone 6a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leonard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Leonard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leonard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLAISE HOG FARM, LLCCAFO · 3.0 mi
- MCEWEN PORK FARM LLCCAFO · 4.0 mi
- CHINN HOG FARM INC.CAFO · 7.0 mi
- HERBERT MAHAFFEY TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- NOVELTY MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- MESMER FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- SHELBYVILLE PWSPFAS · 8.8 mi
- SHELBYVILLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- MAHAFFEY DX SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
- EAGAN'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1286Underground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
Measured from Leonard'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 Leonard.
Total Sites
11
within ~10 miles of Leonard
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leonard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leonard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Leonard
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 Leonard average
Your land is one point inside Leonard
Everything above resolves to Leonard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 206 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 Leonard Average
Leonard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leonard
- ●One soil character for all of Leonard
- ●Frost dates read at Leonard's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leonard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leonard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leonard, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leonard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leonard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leonard average
How we know this about Leonard
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 Leonard’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 Leonard
When does frost risk typically end in Leonard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leonard typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Leonard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leonard typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leonard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leonard sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leonard?
The federal record around Leonard shows 11 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest CAFO record about 3.0 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 Leonard?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leonard's scale — its 6a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leonard'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 Leonard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leonard's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 206 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leonard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leonard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leonard, the closest CAFO record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leonard's boundary and the 206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leonard's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leonard's 206 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leonard's 206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leonard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 206 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 3.0 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 Leonard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLeonard sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides