Blue Grass, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blue Grass, 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 Blue Grass 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 Blue Grass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue Grass — the short answer
Blue Grass, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- 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 Blue Grass's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Grass's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Grass
Each reading below is measured for Blue Grass itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Grass runs about 200 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
MeasuredBlue Grass 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 Blue Grass is in
Blue Grass sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Blue Grass's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Blue Grass
Every plant below cleared Blue Grass's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Grass?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Blue Grass
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Grass. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE GRASS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HM MINIMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE #2381Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SCOTT CO SECONDARY ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 3288Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GLESS BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- U S WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ILLOWABrownfields · 1800 ft
- JACK HULLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BLUE GRASS STEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CONOCO/JLEE OIL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Grass'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 Blue Grass.
Total Sites
547
within ~10 miles of Blue Grass
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Grass
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Grass
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Grass, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blue Grass — Toxics Release Inventory (41 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (346 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Blue Grass
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 Blue Grass average
Your land is one point inside Blue Grass
Everything above resolves to Blue Grass 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 Blue Grass Average
Blue Grass Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Blue Grass
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Grass
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Grass's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Grass's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Grass
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Grass, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Grass averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Grass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Grass average
How we know this about Blue Grass
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 Blue Grass’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 Blue Grass
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Grass?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Grass typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Blue Grass?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Grass typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Grass?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Grass sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 12, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Grass?
The federal record around Blue Grass is a meaningful one — 547 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (346), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Blue Grass?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue Grass's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Grass'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 Blue Grass’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue Grass's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,022 acres it covers and 547 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Grass's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Grass's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 26 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 547 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Grass, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Grass's boundary and the 2,022 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blue Grass'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 Blue Grass's 2,022 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Grass's 2,022 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Grass you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,022 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 Blue Grass-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaBlue Grass sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides