Ravenwood, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ravenwood, 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 Ravenwood 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 Ravenwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ravenwood — the short answer
Ravenwood, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 195 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 195 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 5b is Ravenwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravenwood's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravenwood
Each reading below is measured for Ravenwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRavenwood runs about 205 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
MeasuredRavenwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Ravenwood is in
Ravenwood sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ravenwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nodaway County.
What Grows in Ravenwood
Every plant below cleared Ravenwood's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravenwood?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Ravenwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravenwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- G & G SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- T64N R34W 13Nitrate · 1200 ft
- MARLIN F. MEYERCAFO · 2.3 mi
- T63N R34W 11CDD1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- BEDISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- T63N R33W 18CCB1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- T65N R33W 08DDNitrate · 7.1 mi
- MDOC, MARYVILLE TREATMENT CENTER WWTFBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- JERMAIN GROCERY--ROBERT L. PROTZMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- NODAWAY WORTH ELECTRIC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- T63N R34W 25BBNitrate · 7.9 mi
- RANKIN AIRCRAFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravenwood'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 Ravenwood.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Ravenwood
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravenwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravenwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ravenwood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Ravenwood. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Ravenwood
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 Ravenwood average
Your land is one point inside Ravenwood
Everything above resolves to Ravenwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 195 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 Ravenwood Average
Ravenwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ravenwood
- ●One soil character for all of Ravenwood
- ●Frost dates read at Ravenwood's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravenwood's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravenwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravenwood, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravenwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravenwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravenwood average
How we know this about Ravenwood
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 Ravenwood’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 Ravenwood
When does frost risk typically end in Ravenwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenwood typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Ravenwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenwood typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravenwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravenwood sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravenwood?
The federal record around Ravenwood is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ravenwood?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ravenwood's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravenwood'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 Ravenwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ravenwood's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 195 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravenwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ravenwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravenwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravenwood's boundary and the 195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ravenwood'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 Ravenwood's 195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nodaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nodaway 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 Nodaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravenwood's 195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravenwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 195 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 Ravenwood-wide figureread your own land →