Avoca, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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 Avoca, 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 Avoca 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 Avoca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Avoca — the short answer
Avoca, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Avoca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avoca's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avoca
Each reading below is measured for Avoca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvoca runs about 189 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
MeasuredAvoca 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 Avoca is in
Avoca sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Avoca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pottawattamie County.
What Grows in Avoca
Every plant below cleared Avoca's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avoca?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Avoca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avoca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AVOCA SPEEDEE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2835Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- IDOT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- KEITH HOLTZUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HOLTZ SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TITAN MACHINERY - AVOCABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DAVE'S PLACEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- AVOCA MUN GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- B & B TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COHRON READY MIX - AVOCA PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avoca'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 Avoca.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Avoca
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avoca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avoca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avoca, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Avoca. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Avoca
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 Avoca average
Your land is one point inside Avoca
Everything above resolves to Avoca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Avoca Average
Avoca Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Avoca
- ●One soil character for all of Avoca
- ●Frost dates read at Avoca's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avoca's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avoca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avoca, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avoca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avoca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avoca average
How we know this about Avoca
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 Avoca’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 Avoca
When does frost risk typically end in Avoca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avoca typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Avoca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avoca typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avoca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avoca sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 5, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avoca?
The federal record around Avoca shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Avoca?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avoca's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avoca'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 Avoca’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Avoca's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,524 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avoca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avoca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 19 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avoca, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avoca's boundary and the 1,524 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avoca'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 Avoca's 1,524 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pottawattamie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pottawattamie 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 Pottawattamie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avoca's 1,524 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avoca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,524 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Avoca-wide figureread your own land →
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