Purdy, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Purdy, 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 Purdy 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 Purdy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Purdy — the short answer
Purdy, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 413 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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
- 413 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 Purdy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Purdy's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Purdy
Each reading below is measured for Purdy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPurdy 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
MeasuredPurdy 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 Purdy is in
Purdy sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Purdy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barry County.
What Grows in Purdy
Every plant below cleared Purdy's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Purdy?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Purdy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Purdy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T24N R28W 02DCNitrate · 600 ft
- ROBBERSON MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- T24N R28W 02DCA1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- PURDY PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- R & M INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- WILCOX SECURE INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SOUTHWEST MISSOURI TRANSIT INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- KIP CULLERS POULTRYCAFO · 1.6 mi
- YANG, MAI THORCAFO · 1.9 mi
- GWCAFO DM-24Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- THE EAST PURDY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GWCAFO DM-10Nitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Purdy'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 Purdy.
Total Sites
316
within ~10 miles of Purdy
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Purdy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Purdy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Purdy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Purdy — CAFO (55 sites) and Mining (29 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Purdy
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 Purdy average
Your land is one point inside Purdy
Everything above resolves to Purdy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 413 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 Purdy Average
Purdy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Purdy
- ●One soil character for all of Purdy
- ●Frost dates read at Purdy's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Purdy's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Purdy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Purdy, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Purdy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Purdy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Purdy average
How we know this about Purdy
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 Purdy’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 Purdy
When does frost risk typically end in Purdy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Purdy 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 Purdy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Purdy 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 Purdy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Purdy 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 Purdy?
The federal record around Purdy runs heavier than most — 316 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (100), the nearest Nitrate 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 Purdy?
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 Purdy's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Purdy'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 Purdy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Purdy's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 413 acres it covers and 316 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Purdy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Purdy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 9 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 316 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Purdy, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Purdy's boundary and the 413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Purdy's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Purdy's 413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barry 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 Barry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Purdy's 413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Purdy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 413 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Purdy-wide figureread your own land →
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