Shrewsbury, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Shrewsbury, 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 Shrewsbury 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 Shrewsbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shrewsbury — the short answer
Shrewsbury, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 922 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 922 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 Shrewsbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shrewsbury's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shrewsbury
Each reading below is measured for Shrewsbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShrewsbury runs about 241 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
MeasuredShrewsbury 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 Shrewsbury is in
Shrewsbury sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shrewsbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Shrewsbury
Every plant below cleared Shrewsbury's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shrewsbury?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Shrewsbury
Survey cells within 31 miles of Shrewsbury checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 246 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shrewsbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shrewsbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KENRICK-GLENNON SEMINARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SHELL OIL CO - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- F.G. AVEY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WEIL AVENUE ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- UNION ELECTRIC COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #3061Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- STEPHEN C. ERBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTER SHREWSBURY 2545Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- PETCO #1689Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- TRAFFIC OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ASPHALTIC CONCRETE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CENTIMARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shrewsbury'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 Shrewsbury.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shrewsbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shrewsbury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shrewsbury, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shrewsbury — Toxics Release Inventory (341 sites) and Superfund (67 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Shrewsbury
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 Shrewsbury average
Your land is one point inside Shrewsbury
Everything above resolves to Shrewsbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 922 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 Shrewsbury Average
Shrewsbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Shrewsbury
- ●One soil character for all of Shrewsbury
- ●Frost dates read at Shrewsbury's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shrewsbury's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shrewsbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shrewsbury, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shrewsbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shrewsbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shrewsbury average
How we know this about Shrewsbury
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 Shrewsbury’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 Shrewsbury
When does frost risk typically end in Shrewsbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shrewsbury typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Shrewsbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shrewsbury typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shrewsbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shrewsbury sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 3, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shrewsbury?
The federal record around Shrewsbury runs heavier than most — 4,269 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,561), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Shrewsbury?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shrewsbury's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shrewsbury'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 Shrewsbury’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shrewsbury's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 922 acres it covers and 4,269 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shrewsbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shrewsbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 17 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,269 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shrewsbury, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shrewsbury's boundary and the 922 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shrewsbury's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Shrewsbury 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 Shrewsbury's 922 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis 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 St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shrewsbury's 922 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shrewsbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 922 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Shrewsbury-wide figureread your own land →
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