Peculiar, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peculiar, 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 Peculiar 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 Peculiar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peculiar — the short answer
Peculiar, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Peculiar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peculiar's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peculiar
Each reading below is measured for Peculiar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeculiar runs about 225 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
MeasuredPeculiar 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 Peculiar is in
Peculiar sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Peculiar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Peculiar
Every plant below cleared Peculiar's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peculiar?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Peculiar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peculiar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WORLDWIDE STEEL BUILDINGSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- PECULIAR APPLEMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PERKINS SERVICE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1197Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PECULIAR CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- T45N R32W 08DCC1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- RAYMORE-PECULIAR SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2616Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JOE'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FLYING J TRAVEL PLAZA #672Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FLYING J #672Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- T45N R32W 15Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peculiar'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 Peculiar.
Total Sites
270
within ~10 miles of Peculiar
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peculiar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peculiar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peculiar, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Peculiar — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Peculiar
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 Peculiar average
Your land is one point inside Peculiar
Everything above resolves to Peculiar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Peculiar Average
Peculiar Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Peculiar
- ●One soil character for all of Peculiar
- ●Frost dates read at Peculiar's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peculiar's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peculiar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peculiar, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peculiar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peculiar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peculiar average
How we know this about Peculiar
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 Peculiar’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 Peculiar
When does frost risk typically end in Peculiar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peculiar typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Peculiar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peculiar typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peculiar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peculiar sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 26, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peculiar?
The federal record around Peculiar is a meaningful one — 270 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Peculiar?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peculiar's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peculiar'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 Peculiar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Peculiar's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,802 acres it covers and 270 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peculiar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peculiar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 9 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 270 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peculiar, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peculiar's boundary and the 5,802 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peculiar's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peculiar's 5,802 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peculiar's 5,802 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peculiar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,802 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Peculiar-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriPeculiar sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides