Andover, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Andover, 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 Andover 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 Andover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Andover — the short answer
Andover, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 115 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 115 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 Andover's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Andover's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Andover
Each reading below is measured for Andover itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAndover runs about 195 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
MeasuredAndover 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 Andover is in
Andover sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Andover's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Andover
Every plant below cleared Andover's own zone 5a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Andover?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Andover
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Andover. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLINTON COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HUEBNER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- NAEVE HYBRID CORN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- FAA UBUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 084N06E31BBD 07664 1956Miles 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- EAST CENTRAL COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- EAST CENTRAL CSDBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- FEEDERS SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 084N05E36BDD 00349 1934Miles 2Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- MILES MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- AGVANTAGE FS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- NORTHEAST COMMUNITY JR/SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Andover'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 Andover.
Total Sites
194
within ~10 miles of Andover
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Andover
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Andover
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Andover, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 120 sites within ~10 miles of Andover. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Andover
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 Andover average
Your land is one point inside Andover
Everything above resolves to Andover as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 115 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 Andover Average
Andover Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Andover
- ●One soil character for all of Andover
- ●Frost dates read at Andover's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Andover's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Andover
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Andover, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Andover averages can't show:
We read public map data around Andover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Andover average
How we know this about Andover
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 Andover’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 Andover
When does frost risk typically end in Andover?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Andover typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Andover?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Andover typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Andover?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Andover sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 9, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Andover?
The federal record around Andover is a meaningful one — 194 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Andover?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Andover's scale — its 5a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Andover'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 Andover’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Andover's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 115 acres it covers and 194 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Andover's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Andover's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 194 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Andover, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Andover's boundary and the 115 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Andover'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 Andover's 115 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Andover's 115 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Andover you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 115 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Andover-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaAndover sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides