Bonaparte, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bonaparte, 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 Bonaparte 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 Bonaparte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bonaparte — the short answer
Bonaparte, Iowa: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 239 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 239 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 6a is Bonaparte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bonaparte's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bonaparte
Each reading below is measured for Bonaparte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBonaparte runs about 215 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
MeasuredBonaparte sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bonaparte is in
Bonaparte sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bonaparte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Van Buren County.
What Grows in Bonaparte
Every plant below cleared Bonaparte's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bonaparte?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Bonaparte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bonaparte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAINLINE 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PUMP N PIZZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 068N08W08ACDB 01266 1940Bonaparte SchoolNitrate · 1100 ft
- 068N08W08CDDB 03579 1949Bonaparte 1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 068N08W08CDDD 10301 1957Bonaparte 2Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 068N08W07DDBA 00668 1937Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 068N08W16CCC 10216 1952Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- TADES DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 069N09W25DDA 05502 1952Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 069N09W35DDB 10036 1957Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 068N08W33BAD 15707 1963Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 068N08W33BDB 06770 1953Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bonaparte'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 Bonaparte.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Bonaparte
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bonaparte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bonaparte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bonaparte, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Bonaparte. 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 Bonaparte
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 Bonaparte average
Your land is one point inside Bonaparte
Everything above resolves to Bonaparte as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 239 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 Bonaparte Average
Bonaparte Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bonaparte
- ●One soil character for all of Bonaparte
- ●Frost dates read at Bonaparte's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bonaparte's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bonaparte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bonaparte, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bonaparte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bonaparte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bonaparte average
How we know this about Bonaparte
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 Bonaparte’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 Bonaparte
When does frost risk typically end in Bonaparte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bonaparte typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Bonaparte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bonaparte typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bonaparte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bonaparte sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 20, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bonaparte?
The federal record around Bonaparte shows 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), 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 Bonaparte?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bonaparte's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bonaparte'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 Bonaparte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bonaparte's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 239 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bonaparte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bonaparte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 3 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bonaparte, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bonaparte's boundary and the 239 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bonaparte's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bonaparte's 239 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Van Buren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Van Buren 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 Van Buren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bonaparte's 239 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bonaparte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 239 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 Bonaparte-wide figureread your own land →