Monticello, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Monticello, 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 Monticello 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 Monticello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monticello — the short answer
Monticello, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 167 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 167 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 Monticello's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monticello's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monticello
Each reading below is measured for Monticello itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonticello runs about 218 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
MeasuredMonticello 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 Monticello is in
Monticello sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Monticello's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lewis County.
What Grows in Monticello
Every plant below cleared Monticello's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monticello?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Monticello
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monticello. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCROBERTS FARM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CORKS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- THE FILLIN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MONTICELLO MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- T61N R07W 06DCA1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- T61N R08W 01BCD1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- T62N R07W 30BBD1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- T62N R07W 19CDC1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- T62N R07W 18CCC1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- MIKES 66Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- COUNTY MARKET EXPRESS #788Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- HEETCO STORAGE LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monticello'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 Monticello.
Total Sites
61
within ~10 miles of Monticello
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monticello
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monticello
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monticello, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Monticello. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Monticello
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 Monticello average
Your land is one point inside Monticello
Everything above resolves to Monticello as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 167 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 Monticello Average
Monticello Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Monticello
- ●One soil character for all of Monticello
- ●Frost dates read at Monticello's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monticello's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monticello
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monticello, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monticello averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monticello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monticello average
How we know this about Monticello
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 Monticello’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 Monticello
When does frost risk typically end in Monticello?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monticello typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Monticello?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monticello typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monticello?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monticello sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 20, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monticello?
The federal record around Monticello is a meaningful one — 61 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Monticello?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monticello's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monticello'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 Monticello’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Monticello's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 167 acres it covers and 61 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monticello's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monticello's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 61 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monticello, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monticello's boundary and the 167 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monticello's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monticello's 167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monticello's 167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monticello you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 167 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Monticello-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriMonticello sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides