What to Plant in Kansas in May
By May, Kansas gardens are past the frost line and into full planting mode: tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, corn, and melons all go outside this month…
Gardening in Kansas
Everything we have worked out for Kansas: what to plant and when, which varieties finish in time, the pests that actually turn up here, and the jobs that pay off month by month. We also cover the rest of the property, from lawns and soil to home care and energy, because a garden rarely stops at the vegetable bed.
The numbers first, because everything else follows from them. Measured at the weather station in Wichita, the last spring freeze runs April 4 to April 18 and the first fall freeze runs October 23 to November 2, USDA zones 5b-7a, 4,576 growing degree days in the year.
Garlic does well: 21.8 weeks below 40 °F, comfortably past the six it needs to form a proper head.
Elsewhere on the property in Kansas: the pests that turn up here.
Figures from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals. A state is not one climate: elevation, a large lake or the coast can move these dates by two weeks either way, so check your own county with the extension service before you spend money.
What to Plant in Kansas in March
March in Kansas sits well ahead of the average last spring frost, which the National Weather Service data puts between April 4 and April 18 for the…
What to Plant in Kansas in June
By June, the frost question is settled almost everywhere in Kansas. Soil has warmed enough for beans, corn, squash, melons, and tomato and pepper…
What to Plant in Kansas in July
July in Kansas isn’t a planting-shutdown month, but it’s a heat-management one.
What to Plant in Kansas in January
For most of Kansas, January means the open garden stays closed. The soil is frozen or too wet to work across zones 5b to 7a, and the last spring frost…
What to Plant in Kansas in February
February in Kansas sits well before the state’s last spring frost window of April 4 to April 18, so open-ground planting is mostly off the table.
What to Plant in Kansas in December
December in Kansas answers most planting questions with a flat no. The state sits weeks past its first fall frost, soil temperatures are dropping toward…
What to Plant in Kansas in August
August in Kansas belongs to the fall garden, not the summer one. With the first fall frost landing somewhere between October 23 and November 2 at the…
What to Plant in Kansas in April
Kansas gardeners can put peas, onions, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and other cold-hardy crops in the ground for most of April, but the safe window for…
Growing Peppers in Kansas: Fruit Set, Heat and Timing
Peppers set fruit inside a narrow temperature window, and Kansas summers test both edges of it.