Rush Hill, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Rush Hill, 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 Rush Hill 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 Rush Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rush Hill — the short answer
Rush Hill, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 115 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 115 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 Rush Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rush Hill's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rush Hill
Each reading below is measured for Rush Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRush Hill runs about 220 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
MeasuredRush Hill 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 Rush Hill is in
Rush Hill sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rush Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Audrain County.
What Grows in Rush Hill
Every plant below cleared Rush Hill's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rush Hill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 5 — 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.
Documented around Rush Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rush Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 256 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rush Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rush Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T51N R07W 07DDA1Nitrate · 250 ft
- T51N R07W 10BCB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CENTRAL AUDRAIN PB, LLCCAFO · 2.6 mi
- T52N R07W 35DDD1Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- CIN-WAY LLC - ROUTE J SITECAFO · 4.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1282Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- WAYNE'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- GLENN'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- QUINCY SOYBEAN CO-LADDONIA ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- T52N R07W 36CBD1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- T50N R07W 05DBD1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- MFA EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rush Hill'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 Rush Hill.
Total Sites
154
within ~10 miles of Rush Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rush Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rush Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rush Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rush Hill — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (42 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rush Hill
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 Rush Hill average
Your land is one point inside Rush Hill
Everything above resolves to Rush Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 115 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 Rush Hill Average
Rush Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rush Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Rush Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Rush Hill's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rush Hill's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rush Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rush Hill, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rush Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rush Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rush Hill average
How we know this about Rush Hill
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 Rush Hill’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 Rush Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Rush Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rush Hill 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 Rush Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rush Hill typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rush Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rush Hill sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rush Hill?
The federal record around Rush Hill shows 154 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rush Hill?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rush Hill's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rush Hill'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 Rush Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rush Hill's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 115 acres it covers and 154 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rush Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rush Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 154 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rush Hill, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rush Hill's boundary and the 115 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rush Hill's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rush Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rush Hill's 115 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Audrain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Audrain 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 Audrain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rush Hill's 115 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rush Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 115 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Rush Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriRush Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides