Mansfield, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mansfield, 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 Mansfield 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 Mansfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mansfield — the short answer
Mansfield, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7a is Mansfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mansfield's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mansfield
Each reading below is measured for Mansfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMansfield runs about 222 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
MeasuredMansfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Mansfield is in
Mansfield sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mansfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wright County.
What Grows in Mansfield
Every plant below cleared Mansfield's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mansfield?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Mansfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mansfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALGREENS #15731Brownfields · 300 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1249Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CITY OF MANSFIELD/FORMER HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WRIGHT COUNTY MINESSuperfund · 1100 ft
- CITY OF MANSFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SOUTHWESTERN BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Unknown - LeadMining · 1300 ft
- JERRY'S MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MANSFIELD R IV SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TOBIN HAMILTON CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- MANSFIELD MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VONALLMAN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mansfield'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 Mansfield.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mansfield, Mining runs higher than the national average — 39 sites within ~10 miles of Mansfield. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Mansfield
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 Mansfield average
Your land is one point inside Mansfield
Everything above resolves to Mansfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mansfield Average
Mansfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mansfield
- ●One soil character for all of Mansfield
- ●Frost dates read at Mansfield's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mansfield's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mansfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mansfield, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mansfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mansfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mansfield average
How we know this about Mansfield
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 Mansfield’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 Mansfield
When does frost risk typically end in Mansfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mansfield typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Mansfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mansfield typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mansfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mansfield sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mansfield?
The federal record around Mansfield runs heavier than most — 75 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (39), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mansfield?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mansfield's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mansfield'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 Mansfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mansfield's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,203 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mansfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mansfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 5 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mansfield, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mansfield's boundary and the 1,203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mansfield's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mansfield's 1,203 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wright County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wright 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 Wright County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mansfield's 1,203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mansfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,203 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mansfield-wide figureread your own land →
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