Athelstan, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Athelstan, 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 Athelstan 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 Athelstan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Athelstan — the short answer
Athelstan, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 83 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 83 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 Athelstan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Athelstan's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Athelstan
Each reading below is measured for Athelstan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAthelstan runs about 201 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
MeasuredAthelstan 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 Athelstan is in
Athelstan sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Athelstan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Taylor County.
What Grows in Athelstan
Every plant below cleared Athelstan's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Athelstan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Athelstan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Athelstan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER BLOCKTON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 067N32W12DBBB 00452 1936Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- T66N R33W 14 2Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- T66N R33W 14Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- SHERIDAN MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- SAVILLE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1321Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3074Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- T66N R31W 01BBB1Nitrate · 9.3 mi
- GRANT CITY MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- WORTH COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT R-IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Athelstan'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 Athelstan.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Athelstan
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Athelstan
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 Athelstan average
Your land is one point inside Athelstan
Everything above resolves to Athelstan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 83 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 town 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 Athelstan Average
Athelstan Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Athelstan
- ●One soil character for all of Athelstan
- ●Frost dates read at Athelstan's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Athelstan's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Athelstan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Athelstan, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Athelstan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Athelstan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Athelstan average
How we know this about Athelstan
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Athelstan’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Athelstan
When does frost risk typically end in Athelstan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Athelstan typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Athelstan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Athelstan typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Athelstan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Athelstan sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Athelstan?
The federal record around Athelstan is light — 18 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Athelstan?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Athelstan's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Athelstan'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 Athelstan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Athelstan's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 83 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Athelstan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Athelstan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Athelstan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Athelstan's boundary and the 83 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Athelstan'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 Athelstan's 83 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taylor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taylor 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 Taylor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Athelstan's 83 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Athelstan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 83 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 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 Athelstan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaAthelstan sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.