Fayette County, in 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.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Fayette County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Fayette 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 Fayette County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fayette County — the short answer
Fayette County, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 468K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 468K 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 Fayette County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fayette County's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Fayette County
Across a year, Fayette County accumulates about 2,409 growing degree days above 50°F, about 335 fewer than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 4 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 Fayette County
Across Fayette County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Kenyon, Clyde, and Fayette are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
44%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Fayette County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Fayette County as well drained — but another 62% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 19% poorly drained.
Kenyon is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Clyde (12%) and Fayette (12%).
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 Fayette County
Each reading below is measured for Fayette 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 Fayette County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Fayette 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 16% of Fayette County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredFayette County runs about 181 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
The kind of country Fayette County is in
Fayette County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Corn Belt Plains (68%) and Driftless Area (33%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Fayette County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Fayette County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 181-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 Fayette 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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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.
Documented around Fayette County
- monarch butterfly212 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Fayette County
USGS estimates 296,528 lb of Glyphosate on Fayette County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (164,463 lb) and Atrazine (99,413 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 Fayette County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Fayette County — 291 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Fayette 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 Fayette County
Closest first, across Fayette County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 093N08W29ACAD 17048 1964Fayette 2Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- THE PUMPER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GUNDERSEN LUTHERAN - FAYETTE CLINICBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- POOR''S AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- FORMER GORDON''S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 093N08W28BBDD 03479 1948Fayette 1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- LAMBERT FEED SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- COLLINS AUTOBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- DAVES STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TRIPLE J MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- VOLGA RIVER ST RECREATION AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FAYETTE COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fayette 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 Fayette County.
Total Sites
291
across Fayette County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Fayette County
Severity Distribution
across Fayette County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fayette County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 98 sites across Fayette 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 Fayette 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 Fayette County average
Your land is one point inside Fayette County
Everything above resolves to Fayette County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 468K 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 Fayette County Average
Fayette County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fayette County
- ●One soil character for all of Fayette County
- ●Frost dates read at Fayette County's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fayette County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Fayette County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fayette County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fayette County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fayette County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fayette County average
How we know this about Fayette 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 Fayette County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Fayette County
When does frost risk typically end in Fayette County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fayette County typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
How long is the growing season in Fayette County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fayette County sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fayette County?
The federal record around Fayette County is a meaningful one — 291 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Fayette County's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fayette 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 Fayette County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Fayette County's own scale — its own ~181-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 291 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fayette County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fayette County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Fayette CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 291 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Fayette County's boundary and the 467,722 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Fayette County spans, Western Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Fayette County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Fayette 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 Fayette County — the ~181 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 Fayette County's 467,722 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 291 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 Fayette Countyread your own land →