Reeds Spring, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Reeds Spring, 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 Reeds Spring 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 Reeds Spring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Reeds Spring — the short answer
Reeds Spring, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 959 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- 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
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 959 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 Reeds Spring's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reeds Spring's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reeds Spring
Each reading below is measured for Reeds Spring itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredReeds Spring runs about 227 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
MeasuredReeds Spring 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 Reeds Spring is in
Reeds Spring sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Reeds Spring's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stone County.
What Grows in Reeds Spring
Every plant below cleared Reeds Spring's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reeds Spring?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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 Reeds Spring
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reeds Spring. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REEDS SPRING JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- T24N R23W 36BBD1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- PHINNEY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- REEDS SPRING HIGH SCHOOL BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- T24N R23W 26DAA1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MACCRAFTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- FAST FREDDYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KC TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GEORGE RICHARDSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- T23N R23W 13ABB1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- MURPHY OIL USA #5796Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2175Brownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reeds Spring'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 Reeds Spring.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Reeds Spring
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reeds Spring
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reeds Spring
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reeds Spring, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Reeds Spring. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Reeds Spring
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 Reeds Spring average
Your land is one point inside Reeds Spring
Everything above resolves to Reeds Spring as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 959 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 Reeds Spring Average
Reeds Spring Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Reeds Spring
- ●One soil character for all of Reeds Spring
- ●Frost dates read at Reeds Spring's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reeds Spring's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reeds Spring
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reeds Spring, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reeds Spring averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reeds Spring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reeds Spring average
How we know this about Reeds Spring
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 Reeds Spring’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 Reeds Spring
When does frost risk typically end in Reeds Spring?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reeds Spring typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Reeds Spring?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reeds Spring 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 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reeds Spring?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reeds Spring sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 26, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reeds Spring?
The federal record around Reeds Spring is a meaningful one — 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Reeds Spring?
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 Reeds Spring's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reeds Spring'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 Reeds Spring’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Reeds Spring's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 959 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reeds Spring's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reeds Spring's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 9 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reeds Spring, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reeds Spring's boundary and the 959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Reeds Spring's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Reeds Spring's 959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stone 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 Stone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reeds Spring's 959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reeds Spring you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 959 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Reeds Spring-wide figureread your own land →
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