Lee County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Lee County lies within the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lee County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lee 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 Lee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lee County — the short answer
Lee County, Iowa: USDA zone 6a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 331K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 331K 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 6a is Lee County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lee County's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lee County
Across a year, Lee County accumulates about 3,372 growing degree days above 50°F, about 628 more than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 97 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 Lee County
Across Lee County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Lindley, Weller, and Pershing are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
31%
Hydric soils
27%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lee County
The USDA soil survey maps 28% of Lee County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 67% drains differently: 25% poorly drained, 24% moderately well drained.
Lindley is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Weller (11%) and Pershing (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 Lee County
Each reading below is measured for Lee 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 Lee County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group 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 Lee County runs about pH 5.9–6.5, 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
MeasuredLee County runs about 216 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
MeasuredLee County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Lee County is in
Lee County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Irregular Plains (84%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (16%). 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 Lee County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lee County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 216-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 Lee County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Lee County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lee County
USGS estimates 130,440 lb of Glyphosate on Lee County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (106,859 lb) and Atrazine (96,336 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 Lee County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lee County — 395 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. 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 Lee 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 Lee County
Closest first, across Lee County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HUNOLD OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DONNELLSON TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- E.I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO., INC. (COUNTY ROAD X23)Superfund · 2.4 mi
- 067N05W04DCA 10309 1956Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 068N06W13CAB 01108 1940Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- MCCARL FARMSuperfund · 3.2 mi
- 067N06W14ADD 11795 1959Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 068N06W11DAD 06709 1953Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- KIRCHNERS GARAGEBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- SILGAN CONTAINERS MFG. CORP. - FORT MADISONBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- SILGAN CONTAINERS MFG. CORP. - FORT MADISONToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lee 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 Lee County.
Sources Checked
across Lee County
Severity Distribution
across Lee County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lee County, two things run higher than the national average across Lee County — Toxics Release Inventory (38 sites) and Nitrate (132 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lee 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 Lee County average
Your land is one point inside Lee County
Everything above resolves to Lee County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 331K 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 Lee County Average
Lee County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lee County
- ●One soil character for all of Lee County
- ●Frost dates read at Lee County's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lee County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lee County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lee County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lee County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lee County average
How we know this about Lee 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 Lee County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lee County
When does frost risk typically end in Lee County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lee County typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Lee County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lee County sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 20, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lee County?
The federal record around Lee County is a meaningful one — 395 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lee County's scale — its 6a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lee 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 Lee County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lee County's own scale — its own ~216-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 395 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lee County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lee County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lee CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 395 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lee County's boundary and the 331,232 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Lee County spans, Central Irregular Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lee County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lee 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 Lee County — the ~216 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 Lee County's 331,232 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 395 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 Lee Countyread your own land →