Davis City, 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.
Expect cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Davis City, 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 Davis City 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 Davis City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Davis City — the short answer
Davis City, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 372 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 372 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 Davis City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Davis City's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Davis City
Each reading below is measured for Davis City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDavis City runs about 205 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
MeasuredDavis City 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 Davis City is in
Davis City sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Davis City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Decatur County.
What Grows in Davis City
Every plant below cleared Davis City's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Davis City?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Davis City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Davis City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 068N26W35DCDB 34678 1914Davis City 1Nitrate · 100 ft
- DAVIS CITY QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CITY OF DAVIS CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HULLINGER TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BOSWELL DAVIS CITY ELEVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 067N26W22BDDD 16995 1964Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- KUM & GO #4Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 067N26W20BABA 13344 1962USGS Test D-5 Decatur CoNitrate · 4.7 mi
- GREGS AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- S J BARNEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- INDUSTRIAL HARDFACINGBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- JEFFRIES QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Davis City'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 Davis City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Davis City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Davis City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Davis City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Davis City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Davis City
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 Davis City average
Your land is one point inside Davis City
Everything above resolves to Davis City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 372 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 Davis City Average
Davis City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Davis City
- ●One soil character for all of Davis City
- ●Frost dates read at Davis City's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Davis City's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Davis City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Davis City, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Davis City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Davis City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Davis City average
How we know this about Davis City
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 Davis City’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 Davis City
When does frost risk typically end in Davis City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Davis City typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Davis City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Davis City 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 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Davis City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Davis City sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 13, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Davis City?
The federal record around Davis City shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Davis City?
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 Davis City's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Davis City'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 Davis City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Davis City's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 372 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Davis City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Davis City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 27 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Davis City, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Davis City's boundary and the 372 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Davis City's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Davis City's 372 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Decatur County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Decatur 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 Decatur County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Davis City's 372 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Davis City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 372 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Davis City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaDavis City sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides