Neck City, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Neck City, 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 Neck City 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 Neck City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Neck City — the short answer
Neck City, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 252 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 252 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 Neck City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Neck City's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Neck City
Each reading below is measured for Neck City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNeck City runs about 231 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
MeasuredNeck City 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 Neck City is in
Neck City sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Neck City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in Neck City
Every plant below cleared Neck City's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Neck City?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Neck City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Neck City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bull Dog MineMining · 550 ft
- Samolia MineMining · 750 ft
- Chapman MineMining · 850 ft
- Catherine C. MineMining · 900 ft
- Century MineMining · 900 ft
- Little Em MineMining · 1100 ft
- Big Kate MineMining · 1200 ft
- Red Brush MineMining · 1200 ft
- Reliance MineMining · 1300 ft
- Lucky Tiger MineMining · 1500 ft
- Lone Star MineMining · 1500 ft
- Neck City GroupMining · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Neck City'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 Neck City.
Total Sites
934
within ~10 miles of Neck City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Neck City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Neck City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Neck City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 677 sites within ~10 miles of Neck City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Neck City
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 Neck City average
Your land is one point inside Neck City
Everything above resolves to Neck City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 252 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 Neck City Average
Neck City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Neck City
- ●One soil character for all of Neck City
- ●Frost dates read at Neck City's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Neck City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Neck City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Neck City, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Neck City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Neck City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Neck City average
How we know this about Neck City
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 Neck City’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 Neck City
When does frost risk typically end in Neck City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Neck City typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Neck City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Neck City typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Neck City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Neck City sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Neck City?
The federal record around Neck City runs heavier than most — 934 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (677), the nearest Mining record about 0.1 miles 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 Neck City?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Neck City's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Neck City'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 Neck City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Neck City's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 252 acres it covers and 934 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Neck City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Neck City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 934 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Neck City, the closest Mining record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Neck City's boundary and the 252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Neck City's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Neck City's 252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Neck City's 252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Neck City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 252 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Neck City-wide figureread your own land →
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