Bankston, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Bankston, 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 Bankston 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 Bankston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bankston — the short answer
Bankston, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 173 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- 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
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 173 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 Bankston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bankston's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bankston
Each reading below is measured for Bankston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBankston runs about 185 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
MeasuredBankston 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 Bankston is in
Bankston sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bankston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dubuque County.
What Grows in Bankston
Every plant below cleared Bankston's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bankston?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Bankston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bankston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMP LITTLE CLOUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 088N01W07CDAC 1894Farley 1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- ITC MIDWEST - HICKORY CREEKBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- DIVINE WORD COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 088N01W11BCC Epworth 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- LINK FEED COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 088N01W11CBB 17109 1964Epworth 2Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- FLYNN READY MIX INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- THREE RIVERS FS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BEYER AUTO AND COLLISIONBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- SCHUELLER CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- QUICK N HANDIUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bankston'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 Bankston.
Total Sites
190
within ~10 miles of Bankston
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bankston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bankston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bankston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bankston — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bankston
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 Bankston average
Your land is one point inside Bankston
Everything above resolves to Bankston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 173 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 Bankston Average
Bankston Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bankston
- ●One soil character for all of Bankston
- ●Frost dates read at Bankston's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bankston's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bankston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bankston, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bankston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bankston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bankston average
How we know this about Bankston
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 Bankston’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 Bankston
When does frost risk typically end in Bankston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bankston typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Bankston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bankston 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 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bankston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bankston sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bankston?
The federal record around Bankston runs heavier than most — 190 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bankston?
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 Bankston's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bankston'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 Bankston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bankston's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 173 acres it covers and 190 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bankston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bankston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 190 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bankston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bankston's boundary and the 173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bankston's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bankston's 173 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dubuque County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dubuque 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 Dubuque County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bankston's 173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bankston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 173 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 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 Bankston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Growing region
Nearby growing guides