Arlington, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Arlington, 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 Arlington 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 Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arlington — the short answer
Arlington, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 642 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 642 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 Arlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arlington's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arlington
Each reading below is measured for Arlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArlington runs about 177 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
MeasuredArlington 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 Arlington is in
Arlington sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Arlington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Arlington
Every plant below cleared Arlington's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arlington?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 13 — 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 Arlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER ROY FOSTER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- ARLINGTON DIESEL & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- RONS WELDING & REPAIRBrownfields · 400 ft
- KERNS JAMISON FUNERAL HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- J & R SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MARYVILLE SKELLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FAA ARSRUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ALS SERVICE & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SUMMIT INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 092N07W28DCDB 07201 1955Arlington 3Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 092N07W27CCBB 25958 1980Arlington 4Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 092N07W28DA 01896 1944Nitrate · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arlington'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 Arlington.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arlington, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Arlington. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Arlington
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 Arlington average
Your land is one point inside Arlington
Everything above resolves to Arlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 642 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 Arlington Average
Arlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Arlington
- ●One soil character for all of Arlington
- ●Frost dates read at Arlington's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arlington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arlington, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arlington average
How we know this about Arlington
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 Arlington’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 Arlington
When does frost risk typically end in Arlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington 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 Arlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arlington sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 29, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arlington?
The federal record around Arlington shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), 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 Arlington?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arlington's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arlington'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 Arlington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arlington's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 642 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 13 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arlington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arlington's boundary and the 642 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arlington'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 Arlington's 642 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arlington's 642 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 642 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 Arlington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaArlington sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides