Ankeny, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ankeny, 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 Ankeny 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 Ankeny — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ankeny — the short answer
Ankeny, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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
- 20K 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 Ankeny's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ankeny's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ankeny
Each reading below is measured for Ankeny itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnkeny 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
MeasuredAnkeny 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 Ankeny is in
Ankeny sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ankeny's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Ankeny
Every plant below cleared Ankeny's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ankeny?
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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Ankeny
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ankeny. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANKENY DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 300 ft
- ANKENY DRY CLEANERSSuperfund · 300 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1659Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- TEXACO EXPRESS LUBEBrownfields · 500 ft
- CARR''S 66 SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- TIM''S AMOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ANKENY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DIST-PRINT SHOPBrownfields · 750 ft
- TIMS AMOCO SERVICEBrownfields · 750 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 10114Brownfields · 750 ft
- MAGNUM MUFFLERSBrownfields · 850 ft
- ANKENY TRANSMISSIONSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ANKENY COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ankeny'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 Ankeny.
Total Sites
1,174
within ~10 miles of Ankeny
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ankeny
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ankeny
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ankeny
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 Ankeny average
Your land is one point inside Ankeny
Everything above resolves to Ankeny as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Ankeny Average
Ankeny Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ankeny
- ●One soil character for all of Ankeny
- ●Frost dates read at Ankeny's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ankeny's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ankeny
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ankeny, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ankeny averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ankeny — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ankeny average
How we know this about Ankeny
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 Ankeny’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 Ankeny
When does frost risk typically end in Ankeny?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ankeny 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 Ankeny?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ankeny 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 Ankeny?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ankeny 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 Ankeny?
The federal record around Ankeny is a meaningful one — 1,174 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (656), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ankeny?
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 Ankeny's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ankeny'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 Ankeny’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ankeny's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,419 acres it covers and 1,174 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ankeny's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ankeny's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ankeny, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ankeny's boundary and the 20,419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ankeny'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 Ankeny's 20,419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ankeny's 20,419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ankeny you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,419 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ankeny-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaAnkeny sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides