Carlisle, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Carlisle, 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 Carlisle 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 Carlisle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carlisle — the short answer
Carlisle, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Carlisle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlisle's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlisle
Each reading below is measured for Carlisle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlisle runs about 205 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
MeasuredCarlisle 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 Carlisle is in
Carlisle sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carlisle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Carlisle
Every plant below cleared Carlisle's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlisle?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Carlisle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlisle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 078N23W34DDBD 1979Carlisle 5Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- CARLISLES SUMMIT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF CARLISLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CARLISLE STREETS DEPTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1676Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HUNT'S AMOCOBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- AJ''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 3404Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARLISLE COMMUNITY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CARLISLE COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GENERAL MILLS OPERATION INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GENERAL MILLS OPERATION INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlisle'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 Carlisle.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlisle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlisle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carlisle, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Carlisle. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Carlisle
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 Carlisle average
Your land is one point inside Carlisle
Everything above resolves to Carlisle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Carlisle Average
Carlisle Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Carlisle
- ●One soil character for all of Carlisle
- ●Frost dates read at Carlisle's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlisle's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlisle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlisle, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlisle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlisle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlisle average
How we know this about Carlisle
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 Carlisle’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 Carlisle
When does frost risk typically end in Carlisle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlisle typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Carlisle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlisle typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlisle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlisle sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 15, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlisle?
The federal record around Carlisle is a meaningful one — 974 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (568), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles 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 Carlisle?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlisle's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlisle'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 Carlisle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carlisle's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,617 acres it covers and 974 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlisle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlisle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 29 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 974 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlisle, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlisle's boundary and the 3,617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carlisle'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 Carlisle's 3,617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlisle's 3,617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlisle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,617 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Carlisle-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaCarlisle sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides