Oakwood, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oakwood, 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 Oakwood 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 Oakwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oakwood — the short answer
Oakwood, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 126 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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
- 126 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 6b is Oakwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oakwood's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oakwood
Each reading below is measured for Oakwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOakwood 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
MeasuredOakwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Oakwood is in
Oakwood sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oakwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Oakwood
Every plant below cleared Oakwood's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oakwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oakwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oakwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLADSTONE NISSAN, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NORTHTOWNE BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- NORTH OAK BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GLADSTONE DODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CREEKWOOD CLEANERS-ENGLEWOOD ROADBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HY VEE FUELING STATION #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITAL AUTHORITY WOMENS HEALTHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NORTHLAND AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GLADSTONE GAS N STUFF INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PETE'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TEXACO REFINING & MARKETING-CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10136Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oakwood'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 Oakwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oakwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oakwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oakwood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 228 sites within ~10 miles of Oakwood. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Oakwood
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 Oakwood average
Your land is one point inside Oakwood
Everything above resolves to Oakwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 126 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 Oakwood Average
Oakwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Oakwood
- ●One soil character for all of Oakwood
- ●Frost dates read at Oakwood's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oakwood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oakwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oakwood, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oakwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oakwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oakwood average
How we know this about Oakwood
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 Oakwood’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 Oakwood
When does frost risk typically end in Oakwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oakwood 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 Oakwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oakwood 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 Oakwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oakwood 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 Oakwood?
The federal record around Oakwood runs heavier than most — 2,654 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,310), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Oakwood?
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 Oakwood's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oakwood'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 Oakwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oakwood's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 126 acres it covers and 2,654 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oakwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oakwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,654 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oakwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oakwood's boundary and the 126 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oakwood's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oakwood's 126 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oakwood's 126 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oakwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 126 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Oakwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriOakwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides