Crawfordsville, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Crawfordsville, 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 Crawfordsville 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 Crawfordsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crawfordsville — the short answer
Crawfordsville, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 235 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 235 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 5b is Crawfordsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crawfordsville's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crawfordsville
Each reading below is measured for Crawfordsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrawfordsville runs about 203 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
MeasuredCrawfordsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Crawfordsville is in
Crawfordsville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Crawfordsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Crawfordsville
Every plant below cleared Crawfordsville's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crawfordsville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Crawfordsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crawfordsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HOME OIL STATIONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- COUNTREE STORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WILLIAMS OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HOCHSTETLER FEED & GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MIKES SERVICE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 074N06W15BCAC 07308 1956Crawfordsville (1) 3Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 074N06W15CBDD 01451 1941Crawfordsville (3) South 2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 074N06W10BB 03890 1949Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- CRAWFORDSVILLE FAST BREAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- W2FUEL CRAWFORDSVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- 074N06W26ADC 07838 1956Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crawfordsville'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 Crawfordsville.
Total Sites
204
within ~10 miles of Crawfordsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crawfordsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crawfordsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crawfordsville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Crawfordsville. 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 Crawfordsville
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 Crawfordsville average
Your land is one point inside Crawfordsville
Everything above resolves to Crawfordsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 235 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 Crawfordsville Average
Crawfordsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Crawfordsville
- ●One soil character for all of Crawfordsville
- ●Frost dates read at Crawfordsville's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crawfordsville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crawfordsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crawfordsville, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crawfordsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crawfordsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crawfordsville average
How we know this about Crawfordsville
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 Crawfordsville’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 Crawfordsville
When does frost risk typically end in Crawfordsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crawfordsville typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Crawfordsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crawfordsville typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crawfordsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crawfordsville sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 13, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crawfordsville?
The federal record around Crawfordsville is a meaningful one — 204 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crawfordsville?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crawfordsville's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crawfordsville'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 Crawfordsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crawfordsville's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 235 acres it covers and 204 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crawfordsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crawfordsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 27 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 204 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crawfordsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crawfordsville's boundary and the 235 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crawfordsville's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crawfordsville's 235 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crawfordsville's 235 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crawfordsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 235 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 Crawfordsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaCrawfordsville sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides