Augusta, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Augusta, 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 Augusta 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 Augusta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Augusta — the short answer
Augusta, Iowa: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 479 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 479 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 6a is Augusta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Augusta's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Augusta
Each reading below is measured for Augusta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAugusta runs about 218 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
MeasuredAugusta sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Augusta is in
Augusta sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Augusta's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Des Moines County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Augusta
Every plant below cleared Augusta's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Augusta?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Augusta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Augusta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 069N04W24CCC 18592 1966Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 069N04W36BAAA 03237 1948Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 069N04W27CDCD 10271 1957Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 069N04W09DAA 02354 1946Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 069N04W09DAA 04927 1951Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- BOHNENKAMP''SUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- JET STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 069N04W29DCAD 22959 1971Denmark 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- US ARMY IOWA ARMY AMMUNITION PLANTBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- US ARMY IOWA ARMY AMMUNITION PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- US ARMY IOWA ARMY AMMUNITION PLANTSuperfund · 3.6 mi
- 069N04W01AAAA 01431 1941Iowa Ordinance Plant 4Nitrate · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Augusta'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 Augusta.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Augusta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Augusta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Augusta, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Augusta. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Augusta
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 Augusta average
Your land is one point inside Augusta
Everything above resolves to Augusta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 479 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 Augusta Average
Augusta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Augusta
- ●One soil character for all of Augusta
- ●Frost dates read at Augusta's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Augusta's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Augusta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Augusta, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Augusta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Augusta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Augusta average
How we know this about Augusta
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 Augusta’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 Augusta
When does frost risk typically end in Augusta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Augusta typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Augusta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Augusta typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Augusta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Augusta sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Augusta?
The federal record around Augusta is a meaningful one — 414 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (204), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Augusta?
From about Oct 5 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 Nov 4 (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 Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Augusta's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Augusta'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 Augusta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Augusta's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 479 acres it covers and 414 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Augusta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Augusta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 414 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Augusta, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Augusta's boundary and the 479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Augusta sits in the Central Irregular Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Augusta's 479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Des Moines County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Des Moines 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 Des Moines County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Augusta's 479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Augusta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 479 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Augusta-wide figureread your own land →