Page County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Page County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Page 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 Page County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Page County — the short answer
Page County, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 342K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 342K 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 5b is Page County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Page County's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Page County
Across a year, Page County accumulates about 3,080 growing degree days above 50°F, about 336 more than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 87 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 Page County
Across Page County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Colo, Sharpsburg, and Judson are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.3, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
22%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Page County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Page County as well drained — but another 67% drains differently: 28% moderately well drained, 26% poorly drained.
Colo is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Sharpsburg (13%) and Judson (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 Page County
Each reading below is measured for Page 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 Page 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 Page County runs about pH 5.9–6.3, 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 24% of Page 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
MeasuredPage County runs about 200 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
The kind of country Page County is in
Page 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 Page County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Page County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 200-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 Page 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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Page County
- monarch butterfly140 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Page County
USGS estimates 216,540 lb of Glyphosate on Page County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (77,431 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (75,774 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 Page County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Page County — 153 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 Page 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 Page County
Closest first, across Page County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLARINDA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- PHILS KERR MCGEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- FRANCES YOUNGMARK FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- BETHESDA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CITY OF CLARINDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- PAGE COUNTY LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CAVNER OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2466Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CLARINDA CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 300Brownfields · 5.6 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2491Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CLARINDA 66Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Page 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 Page County.
Total Sites
153
across Page County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Page County
Severity Distribution
across Page County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Page County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites across Page County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Page 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 Page County average
Your land is one point inside Page County
Everything above resolves to Page County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 342K 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 Page County Average
Page County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Page County
- ●One soil character for all of Page County
- ●Frost dates read at Page County's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Page County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Page County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Page County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Page County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Page County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Page County average
How we know this about Page 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 Page County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Page County
When does frost risk typically end in Page County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Page County typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
How long is the growing season in Page County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Page County sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 11, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Page County?
The federal record around Page County is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Brownfields record about 5.0 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 Page County's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Page 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 Page County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Page County's own scale — its own ~200-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 153 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Page County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Page County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Page CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 153 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 5.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Page County's boundary and the 342,364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Page County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Page County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Page 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 Page County — the ~200 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 Page County's 342,364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 153 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 Page Countyread your own land →