The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The warmest, wettest, longest-season corner of Kansas. Cherokee and Crawford counties run zone 7a with about 231 frost-free days — roughly three weeks past the state's midsection and over a month longer than the arid High Plains — and the whole cluster sits at 219–231 days (verified, api/data/county_data.json). This is Ozark-border ground: acidic, timbered soils and coal strip-pit lake country on the tip of the Springfield Plateau that pushes into Cherokee County, not the thin alkaline limestone rangeland of the Flint Hills or the dryland wheat-and-sorghum semi-arid west. A grower in Pittsburg or Columbus gardens a longer, more humid, more acidic season than the statewide Kansas page implies — favoring tree fruit, brambles, and heat-loving crops that want a full season and soil that leans acid. On paper, tomato, sunflower, buffalo grass, and peach all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) spans Kansas.
Your yard isn't all of the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border).
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) spans USDA zones 6b-7a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) — the short answer
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border): USDA zones 6b-7a, 219–231 frost-free days, in Kansas.
- USDA zones
- 6b-7a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 219–231 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 8
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
Plants matched to the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)'s USDA zones 6b-7a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)’s USDA zones 6b-7a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across eight member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Mollisols, at 73% of mapped acres, followed by Alfisols (18%), Vertisols (5%) and Entisols (2%). Six soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Dennis, Kenoma, and Parsons.
43% of those acres are somewhat poorly drained, and another 31% moderately well drained, 21% well drained. Topsoil pH runs 5.6–6.5 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 69% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Topsoil pH
5.6–6.5
Hydric soils
4%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Linn County holds the most wetland ground here, at 6% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records43% of the mapped acres across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) are somewhat poorly drained — ground that sheds water slowly. That is area-weighted across all eight of its mapped counties.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) runs pH 5.6–6.5 — near neutral in seven of its eight counties.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) — and how to grow with it.
Across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)'s 8 counties the federal record holds 1,869 documented sites, mostly Nitrate (724), Underground Storage Tanks (593) and Brownfields (359). The heaviest single county is Montgomery County, with 381.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 8 counties in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border), Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 724 sites across the 8 counties in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
Everything above resolves to the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 6b-7a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) Average
Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b-7a, averaged across Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
- ●One soil character for all of Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)'s 6b-7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) average
How we know this about the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
What hardiness zone is the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)?
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-7a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)'s counties mostly run 222 to 229 frost-free days, median 225 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 8 member counties). That 7-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 8 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)?
Across the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border), the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Mar 27 and Mar 29 (median Mar 28), and their first fall freeze between Nov 6 and Nov 10. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 18, and elevation decides which end of a 2-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)?
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)'s conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Sunflower, Buffalo Grass, Peach, Blackberry. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) defined?
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) is defined here as a curated cluster of 8 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) cover?
The Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border) spans Kansas. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
High Plains, Flint Hills, Wichita / South-Central Kansas (Arkansas River Lowlands), and Greater Kansas City Metro (Kansas Side) share at least one state with the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)'s own scale — the zone 6b-7a band across its footprint, a median 225-day season across its 8 counties and 1,869 documented federal contamination records across its 8 counties, 381 of them in Montgomery County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 6b-7a aggregated across all 8 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 8 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 8 counties run 222 to 229 frost-free days, median 225NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 1,869 documented federal contamination records across its 8 counties, 381 of them in Montgomery County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 73% Mollisols, topsoil pH 5.6–6.5, area-weighted across its 8 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 6b-7afrom Kansas
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 7-day range your ground sits at — 222 days at one extreme, 229 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Southeast Kansas / Cherokee Lowlands (Ozark Border)
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Kansas
A semi-arid shortgrass tableland of deep soils and big sky, where wind, low rainfall, and irrigation shape dryland wheat, sorghum, and resilient gardens.
Kansas's Flint Hills hold the largest remaining expanse of intact tallgrass prairie in North America, where thin, cherty limestone soils long favored ranching over the plow, and across its 13 core counties growers work USDA zones 6a to 7a with a frost-free season of roughly 197 to 223 days.
South-central Kansas's warm sandy tier — the Arkansas River Lowlands, where alluvial sand plains drain and warm faster than the loess and limestone prairie around them. The Wichita core runs zone 7a with roughly 226 frost-free days, the longest, warmest growing window in central Kansas and genuinely different soil to dig than the Flint Hills to the east.
The Kansas half of the Kansas City metro — Johnson, Wyandotte, Leavenworth, and Miami counties, from Overland Park and Olathe to Kansas City, KS. What sets this page apart isn't a different climate — it's a split city. 'Kansas City planting zone' is one search for two states, and this is the KS-side answer. Gardeners here sit in USDA zone 6b with a roughly 215–223-day growing season — last spring frost around March 30–April 1, first fall frost near November 2–8 — the same eastern-Kansas rhythm that governs the whole metro. The state line is a jurisdictional edge, not a climate one, so plan by the season, not the county sign.