Bradgate, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Bradgate, 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 Bradgate 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 Bradgate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bradgate — the short answer
Bradgate, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 335 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 335 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 Bradgate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bradgate's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bradgate
Each reading below is measured for Bradgate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBradgate runs about 188 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
MeasuredBradgate 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 Bradgate is in
Bradgate sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bradgate's own centroid rather than borrowed from Humboldt County.
What Grows in Bradgate
Every plant below cleared Bradgate's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bradgate?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Bradgate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bradgate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUMBOLDT COUNTY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SATERN SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PRO COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 093N30W30CB 11913 1960Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- DUTCHLAND DAIRYCAFO · 4.9 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 30Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 091N30W06BABB 09420 1957Gilmore City 3Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- SABO BODY SHOPBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- EDWARD STOULILUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- PAGE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- 092N31W05DAAA 00254 1935Rolfe Test 2Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- MIDWEST LIMESTONE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bradgate'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 Bradgate.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Bradgate
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bradgate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bradgate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bradgate, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Bradgate. 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 Bradgate
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 Bradgate average
Your land is one point inside Bradgate
Everything above resolves to Bradgate as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 335 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 Bradgate Average
Bradgate Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bradgate
- ●One soil character for all of Bradgate
- ●Frost dates read at Bradgate's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bradgate's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bradgate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bradgate, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bradgate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bradgate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bradgate average
How we know this about Bradgate
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 Bradgate’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 Bradgate
When does frost risk typically end in Bradgate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bradgate typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Bradgate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bradgate typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bradgate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bradgate sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 7, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bradgate?
The federal record around Bradgate shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), 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 Bradgate?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bradgate's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bradgate'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 Bradgate’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bradgate's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 335 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bradgate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bradgate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 21 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bradgate, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bradgate's boundary and the 335 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bradgate'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 Bradgate's 335 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Humboldt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Humboldt 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 Humboldt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bradgate's 335 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bradgate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 335 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 Bradgate-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaBradgate sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides