Deep River, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deep River, 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 Deep River 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 Deep River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deep River — the short answer
Deep River, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 280 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 280 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 Deep River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deep River's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deep River
Each reading below is measured for Deep River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeep River runs about 193 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeep River 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 Deep River is in
Deep River sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Deep River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Poweshiek County.
What Grows in Deep River
Every plant below cleared Deep River's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deep River?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Deep River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deep River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POWESHIEK COUNTY-DEEP RIVER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WIDMER REPAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- M I E INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BAUSTIANS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- GIBSON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- SULLY COOPERATIVE EXCHANGE-BARNES CITY BRANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- ROBERTSON DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- POWESHIEK COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- KWIK STAR #303Underground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- MONTEZUMA MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- MONTEZUMA MANUFACTURINGToxics Release Inventory · 7.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deep River'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 Deep River.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Deep River
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deep River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deep River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deep River, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Deep River. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Deep River
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 Deep River average
Your land is one point inside Deep River
Everything above resolves to Deep River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 280 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 Deep River Average
Deep River Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Deep River
- ●One soil character for all of Deep River
- ●Frost dates read at Deep River's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deep River's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deep River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deep River, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deep River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deep River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deep River average
How we know this about Deep River
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 Deep River’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 Deep River
When does frost risk typically end in Deep River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deep River typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Deep River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deep River typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deep River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deep River sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 8, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deep River?
The federal record around Deep River shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Deep River?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deep River's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deep River'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 Deep River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deep River's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 280 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deep River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deep River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 22 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deep River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deep River's boundary and the 280 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deep River'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 Deep River's 280 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Poweshiek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Poweshiek 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 Poweshiek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deep River's 280 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deep River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 280 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 Deep River-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaDeep River sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides