Clermont, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Clermont, 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 Clermont 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 Clermont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clermont — the short answer
Clermont, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 806 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 806 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 Clermont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clermont's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clermont
Each reading below is measured for Clermont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClermont runs about 189 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
MeasuredClermont 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 Clermont is in
Clermont sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clermont's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Clermont
Every plant below cleared Clermont's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clermont?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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 Clermont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clermont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAYETTE COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- VALLEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 095N07W34ACAD 1921Clermont 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 095N07W34ACAD 1924Clermont 2Nitrate · 1300 ft
- NORTHEAST IOWA COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- VALLEY ""C"" STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 3534Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CLERMONT WATER SUPPLYPFAS · 1.5 mi
- NORTH FAYETTE VALLEY COMMUNITY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- VALLEY COMM SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- VALLEY VETERINARY CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- ELGIN SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clermont'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 Clermont.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Clermont
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clermont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clermont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clermont, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Clermont. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Clermont
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 Clermont average
Your land is one point inside Clermont
Everything above resolves to Clermont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 806 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 Clermont Average
Clermont Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Clermont
- ●One soil character for all of Clermont
- ●Frost dates read at Clermont's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clermont's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clermont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clermont, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clermont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clermont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clermont average
How we know this about Clermont
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 Clermont’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 Clermont
When does frost risk typically end in Clermont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clermont typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Clermont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clermont 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 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clermont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clermont sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clermont?
The federal record around Clermont shows 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), 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 Clermont?
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 Clermont's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clermont'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 Clermont’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clermont's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 806 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clermont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clermont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clermont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clermont's boundary and the 806 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clermont sits in the Driftless Area — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clermont's 806 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clermont's 806 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clermont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 806 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 Clermont-wide figureread your own land →
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