Buena Vista County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Buena Vista County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Buena Vista County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Buena Vista County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Buena Vista County — the short answer
Buena Vista County, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 368K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 368K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Buena Vista County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buena Vista County's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Buena Vista County
Across a year, Buena Vista County accumulates about 2,598 growing degree days above 50°F, about 146 fewer than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 27 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Buena Vista County
Across Buena Vista County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Nicollet, Canisteo, and Sac are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
55%
Hydric soils
34%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Buena Vista County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Buena Vista County as poorly drained — but another 67% drains differently: 26% moderately well drained, 22% somewhat poorly drained.
Nicollet is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Canisteo (12%) and Sac (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Buena Vista County
Each reading below is measured for Buena Vista County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Buena Vista County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Buena Vista County runs about pH 6.2–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBuena Vista County runs about 183 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
MeasuredBuena Vista County 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 Buena Vista County is in
Buena Vista County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Buena Vista County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Buena Vista County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 183-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile.
Is it too late to plant in Buena Vista County?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Buena Vista County
- monarch butterfly165 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Buena Vista County
USGS estimates 250,671 lb of Glyphosate on Buena Vista County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (154,764 lb) and Atrazine (71,773 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Buena Vista County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Buena Vista County — 305 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Buena Vista County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Buena Vista County
Closest first, across Buena Vista County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AGRISCHOOLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FIRST COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 091N37W02CBA 08104 1955Truesdale 1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 091N36W15BCBA 10543 1958Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- FARM NUTRIENTS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
- 091N37W05DDC 08226 1957Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- NELSONS PREMIX & VET SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 092N37W01CBBDNitrate · 5.1 mi
- HULTGREN - GERLACH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- BARGLOFFSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- RASMUSSEN FORD-MERCURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- NWB/ROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buena Vista County'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 Buena Vista County.
Total Sites
305
across Buena Vista County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Buena Vista County
Severity Distribution
across Buena Vista County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buena Vista County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 112 sites across Buena Vista County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Buena Vista County
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 Buena Vista County average
Your land is one point inside Buena Vista County
Everything above resolves to Buena Vista County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 368K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Buena Vista County Average
Buena Vista County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Buena Vista County
- ●One soil character for all of Buena Vista County
- ●Frost dates read at Buena Vista County's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buena Vista County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Buena Vista County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buena Vista County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buena Vista County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buena Vista County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buena Vista County average
How we know this about Buena Vista County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Buena Vista County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Buena Vista County
When does frost risk typically end in Buena Vista County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buena Vista County typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Buena Vista County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buena Vista County sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 5, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buena Vista County?
The federal record around Buena Vista County is a meaningful one — 305 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Buena Vista County's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buena Vista County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Iowa's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Buena Vista County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Buena Vista County's own scale — its own ~183-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 305 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buena Vista County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buena Vista County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Buena Vista CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 305 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Buena Vista County's boundary and the 367,935 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Buena Vista County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Buena Vista County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Buena Vista County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Buena Vista County — the ~183 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buena Vista County's 367,935 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 305 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Buena Vista Countyread your own land →