Millard, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Millard, 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 Millard 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 Millard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Millard — the short answer
Millard, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 77 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
- 77 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 Millard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millard's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millard
Each reading below is measured for Millard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMillard 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
MeasuredMillard 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 Millard is in
Millard sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Millard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adair County.
What Grows in Millard
Every plant below cleared Millard'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 Millard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Millard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIRKSVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WARREN COUNTY CONCRETE - KIRKSVILLE SOUTHToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- T61N R15W 18ACA1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- BUCKS AUTO BODY & COLLISIONBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- HY TEST INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 4.4 mi
- FUEL MAX F-230Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- KIRKSVILLE PWSPFAS · 4.7 mi
- TIPPETT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- HOLLISTER INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- HOLLISTER INC-DIV OF SCHNEIDER INCBrownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millard'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 Millard.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Millard
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millard, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of Millard. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Millard
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 Millard average
Your land is one point inside Millard
Everything above resolves to Millard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 77 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 Millard Average
Millard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Millard
- ●One soil character for all of Millard
- ●Frost dates read at Millard's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millard, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millard average
How we know this about Millard
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 Millard’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 Millard
When does frost risk typically end in Millard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millard 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 Millard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millard 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 Millard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millard 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 Millard?
The federal record around Millard shows 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Millard?
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 Millard's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millard'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 Millard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Millard's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 77 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Millard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millard's boundary and the 77 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 Millard's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millard's 77 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adair 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 Adair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Millard's 77 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 77 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Millard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriMillard sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides