Bagley, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bagley, 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 Bagley 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 Bagley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bagley — the short answer
Bagley, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 200 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 200 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 Bagley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bagley's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bagley
Each reading below is measured for Bagley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBagley runs about 190 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
MeasuredBagley 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 Bagley is in
Bagley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bagley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guthrie County.
What Grows in Bagley
Every plant below cleared Bagley's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bagley?
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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Bagley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bagley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- J & P IRWIN FARM LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CITY OF BAGLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Y J B COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CORNELIUS OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- JONTZ PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - BAGLEY TBSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- 081N31W22CCCC 26737 1982IGS & USGS WC-105Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- BAGLEY COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JEFFERSON, IA 27Toxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- 080N31W04BAAD 18695 1966Springbrook State ParkNitrate · 5.3 mi
- 081N31W32CBCC 26738 1982IGS & USGS WC-106Nitrate · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bagley'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 Bagley.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Bagley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bagley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bagley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bagley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Bagley. 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 Bagley
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 Bagley average
Your land is one point inside Bagley
Everything above resolves to Bagley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 200 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 Bagley Average
Bagley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bagley
- ●One soil character for all of Bagley
- ●Frost dates read at Bagley's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bagley's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bagley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bagley, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bagley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bagley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bagley average
How we know this about Bagley
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 Bagley’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 Bagley
When does frost risk typically end in Bagley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bagley 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 Bagley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bagley typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bagley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bagley sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 6, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bagley?
The federal record around Bagley shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bagley?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bagley's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bagley'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 Bagley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bagley's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 200 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bagley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bagley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 20 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bagley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bagley's boundary and the 200 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bagley'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 Bagley's 200 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guthrie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guthrie 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 Guthrie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bagley's 200 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bagley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 200 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bagley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaBagley sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides