Douds, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Douds, 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 Douds 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 Douds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Douds — the short answer
Douds, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Douds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Douds's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Douds
Each reading below is measured for Douds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDouds runs about 206 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
MeasuredDouds 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 Douds is in
Douds sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Douds's own centroid rather than borrowed from Van Buren County.
What Grows in Douds
Every plant below cleared Douds's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Douds?
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 30 — 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 Douds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Douds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 070N11W26AAAB 1970Douds 2Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- DOUDS KWIK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DOUDS STONE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DOUDS ATTENDANCE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 070N11W26DBDA 16747 1963Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- BAIRDS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SHEETZ SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- J R JONES TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- PUMP N PIZZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- 070N10W12DAC 17648 1965Birmingham 1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- CRAIGS AUTO REPAIR & SERVICEBrownfields · 6.8 mi
- 070N09W31BCB 04195 1950Nitrate · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Douds'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 Douds.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Douds
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Douds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Douds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Douds, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Douds. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Douds
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 Douds average
Your land is one point inside Douds
Everything above resolves to Douds as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 Douds Average
Douds Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Douds
- ●One soil character for all of Douds
- ●Frost dates read at Douds's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Douds's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Douds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Douds, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Douds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Douds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Douds average
How we know this about Douds
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Douds’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Douds
When does frost risk typically end in Douds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Douds 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 Douds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Douds typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Douds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Douds sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 16, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Douds?
The federal record around Douds shows 73 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles 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 Douds?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Douds's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Douds'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 Douds’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Douds's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,416 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Douds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Douds's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 30 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Douds, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Douds's boundary and the 1,416 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Douds's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Douds's 1,416 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Van Buren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Van Buren 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 Van Buren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Douds's 1,416 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Douds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,416 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles 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 Douds-wide figureread your own land →