Norborne, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Norborne, 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 Norborne 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 Norborne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Norborne — the short answer
Norborne, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 414 acres of city.
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 414 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 Norborne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norborne's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Norborne
Each reading below is measured for Norborne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorborne runs about 217 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
MeasuredNorborne 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 Norborne is in
Norborne sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Norborne's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Carroll County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Norborne
Every plant below cleared Norborne's own zone 6a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Norborne?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Norborne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Norborne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B.F. KASSEN MOTOR CO - OWNER CHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- T52N R25W 23BDB2Nitrate · 450 ft
- CARL JONES KIDDIELANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- T52N R25W 23BDB1Nitrate · 500 ft
- MHTD - DO NOT OWN LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NORBORNE R 8 SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- NORBORNE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GREEN GABLESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ROGER'S STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1312Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DAVIS-LANE OIL CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- T52N R26W 25BCC1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norborne'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 Norborne.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Norborne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Norborne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norborne, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Norborne. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Norborne
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 Norborne average
Your land is one point inside Norborne
Everything above resolves to Norborne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 414 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 Norborne Average
Norborne Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Norborne
- ●One soil character for all of Norborne
- ●Frost dates read at Norborne's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norborne's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Norborne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norborne, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norborne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norborne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norborne average
How we know this about Norborne
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 Norborne’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 Norborne
When does frost risk typically end in Norborne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norborne 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 Norborne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Norborne 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 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Norborne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norborne sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 19, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norborne?
The federal record around Norborne shows 60 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Norborne?
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 Norborne's scale — its 6a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norborne'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 Norborne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Norborne's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 414 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norborne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Norborne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 2 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Norborne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Norborne's boundary and the 414 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Norborne sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Norborne's 414 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Norborne's 414 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Norborne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 414 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Norborne-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriNorborne sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides