Baxter, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Baxter, 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 Baxter 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 Baxter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baxter — the short answer
Baxter, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 419 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 419 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 Baxter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baxter's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baxter
Each reading below is measured for Baxter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaxter runs about 194 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
MeasuredBaxter 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 Baxter is in
Baxter sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Baxter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in Baxter
Every plant below cleared Baxter's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baxter?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Baxter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baxter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAXTER FOOD CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SAAK OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MILLIGAN BROSBrownfields · 550 ft
- MID STATE CONSTRUCTION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- JASPER COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BAXTER COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CLEMENT GRAIN CO INC DBA E BAR J FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PRONTO MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HARLAN HUFFAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BAXTER COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COLONIAL MANORS OF JASPER COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BUCKLIN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baxter'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 Baxter.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Baxter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baxter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baxter
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Baxter
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 Baxter average
Your land is one point inside Baxter
Everything above resolves to Baxter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 419 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 Baxter Average
Baxter Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Baxter
- ●One soil character for all of Baxter
- ●Frost dates read at Baxter's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baxter's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baxter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baxter, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baxter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baxter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baxter average
How we know this about Baxter
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 Baxter’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 Baxter
When does frost risk typically end in Baxter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baxter typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Baxter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baxter typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baxter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baxter sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 9, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baxter?
The federal record around Baxter shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baxter?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baxter's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baxter'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 Baxter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baxter's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 419 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baxter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baxter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 23 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baxter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baxter's boundary and the 419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baxter'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 Baxter's 419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baxter's 419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baxter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 419 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baxter-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaBaxter sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides