Alta Vista, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alta Vista, 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 Alta Vista 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 Alta Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alta Vista — the short answer
Alta Vista, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 481 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 481 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 5a is Alta Vista's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alta Vista's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alta Vista
Each reading below is measured for Alta Vista itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlta Vista runs about 178 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlta Vista sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Alta Vista is in
Alta Vista sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Alta Vista's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chickasaw County.
What Grows in Alta Vista
Every plant below cleared Alta Vista's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alta Vista?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Alta Vista
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alta Vista. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EICKHOFF PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- AV EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 097N14W01DDC 1997NAWQANitrate · 3.4 mi
- DONS TIRE AND REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- L O MOHRFELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- SECONDARY ROADS DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- C & H FARM SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ELMA EXPRESS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- CROELL REDI-MIX INC-ELMAToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- HOWARD-WINNESHIEK SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 098N14W26DCC 1996NAWQANitrate · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alta Vista'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 Alta Vista.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Alta Vista
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alta Vista
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alta Vista
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alta Vista, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Alta Vista. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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).
Check your specific parcel in Alta Vista
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 Alta Vista average
Your land is one point inside Alta Vista
Everything above resolves to Alta Vista as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 481 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 Alta Vista Average
Alta Vista Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Alta Vista
- ●One soil character for all of Alta Vista
- ●Frost dates read at Alta Vista's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alta Vista's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alta Vista
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alta Vista, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alta Vista averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alta Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alta Vista average
How we know this about Alta Vista
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 Alta Vista’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 Alta Vista
When does frost risk typically end in Alta Vista?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alta Vista typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Alta Vista?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alta Vista typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alta Vista?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alta Vista sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 30, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alta Vista?
The federal record around Alta Vista shows 39 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alta Vista?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alta Vista's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alta Vista'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 Alta Vista’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alta Vista's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 481 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alta Vista's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alta Vista's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 14 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alta Vista, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alta Vista's boundary and the 481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alta Vista's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alta Vista's 481 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chickasaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alta Vista's 481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alta Vista you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 481 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alta Vista-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaAlta Vista sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides