South Gifford, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Gifford, 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 South Gifford 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 South Gifford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Gifford — the short answer
South Gifford, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 131 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 131 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 6a is South Gifford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Gifford's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Gifford
Each reading below is measured for South Gifford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Gifford runs about 211 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
MeasuredSouth Gifford sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 South Gifford is in
South Gifford sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at South Gifford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Macon County.
What Grows in South Gifford
Every plant below cleared South Gifford's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Gifford?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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.
What's on the federal record near South Gifford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Gifford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T59N R16W 02BDC1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- T61N R15W 18ACA1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- MHTD 11 & 149 MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- CLEAR CREEK FARMCAFO · 8.3 mi
- KIRKSVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- WARREN COUNTY CONCRETE - KIRKSVILLE SOUTHToxics Release Inventory · 9.2 mi
- BUCKS AUTO BODY & COLLISIONBrownfields · 9.3 mi
- YOUNTS MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.5 mi
Measured from South Gifford'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 South Gifford.
Total Sites
10
within ~10 miles of South Gifford
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Gifford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Gifford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in South Gifford
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 South Gifford average
Your land is one point inside South Gifford
Everything above resolves to South Gifford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 131 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 South Gifford Average
South Gifford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across South Gifford
- ●One soil character for all of South Gifford
- ●Frost dates read at South Gifford's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Gifford's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Gifford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Gifford, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Gifford averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Gifford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Gifford average
How we know this about South Gifford
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 South Gifford’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 South Gifford
When does frost risk typically end in South Gifford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Gifford typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in South Gifford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Gifford typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Gifford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Gifford sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Gifford?
The federal record around South Gifford is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Nitrate record about 5.5 miles 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 South Gifford?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Gifford's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Gifford'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 South Gifford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Gifford's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 131 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Gifford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Gifford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Gifford, the closest Nitrate record about 5.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Gifford's boundary and the 131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Gifford's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Gifford's 131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Macon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Macon 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 Macon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Gifford's 131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Gifford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 131 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 5.5 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 South Gifford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriSouth Gifford sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.