Agency, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Agency, 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 Agency 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 Agency — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Agency — the short answer
Agency, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 362 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 362 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 5b is Agency's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Agency's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Agency
Each reading below is measured for Agency itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAgency runs about 205 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
MeasuredAgency sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Agency is in
Agency sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Agency's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wapello County.
What Grows in Agency
Every plant below cleared Agency's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Agency?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Agency
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Agency. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELLIOTT OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- KENT STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 072N13W36DBBB 20079 1968Agency 6Nitrate · 1300 ft
- SHORT SHOP #10 (ELDON Y)Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- IFF AGENCY 26Toxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- IFF PLEASANT 29Toxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- 071N13W02DBCB 08456 1957Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 071N13W10BBB 15146 1961Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- IFF JIRSA LOISEToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- IFF PLEASANT 20Toxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- IFF WASHINGTON 6Toxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- ITC TRANSMISSION - MIDWEST WAPELLO COUNTYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Agency'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 Agency.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Agency
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Agency
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Agency, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Agency. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Agency
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 Agency average
Your land is one point inside Agency
Everything above resolves to Agency as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 362 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 Agency Average
Agency Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Agency
- ●One soil character for all of Agency
- ●Frost dates read at Agency's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Agency's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Agency
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Agency, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Agency averages can't show:
We read public map data around Agency — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Agency average
How we know this about Agency
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 Agency’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 Agency
When does frost risk typically end in Agency?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Agency typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Agency?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Agency typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Agency?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Agency sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Agency?
The federal record around Agency is a meaningful one — 255 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (126), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Agency?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Agency's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Agency'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 Agency’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Agency's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 362 acres it covers and 255 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Agency's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Agency's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 255 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Agency, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Agency's boundary and the 362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Agency's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Agency's 362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wapello County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wapello County
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wapello County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Agency's 362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Agency you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 362 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Agency-wide figureread your own land →