Dundee, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dundee, 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 Dundee 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 Dundee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dundee — the short answer
Dundee, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 202 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 202 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 5a is Dundee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dundee's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dundee
Each reading below is measured for Dundee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDundee runs about 176 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
MeasuredDundee sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Dundee is in
Dundee sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dundee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Dundee
Every plant below cleared Dundee's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dundee?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Dundee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dundee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHROEDERS CASH SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MURPHYS GARAGE & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BACKBONE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DELAWARE COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- KLINE PRODUCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- 090N06W09CCC IA Conservation CommissionNitrate · 2.7 mi
- ITC MIDWEST - DUNDEEBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- 090N06W04CABC 00270 Backbone 3 Fish HatcheryNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 090N06W04DBBB 00271 Backbone 4 AuditoriumNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 090N06W04BDDA IA Conservation CommissionNitrate · 4.1 mi
- EZ PICKINS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- THREE RIVERS FS - FUEL 24Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dundee'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 Dundee.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of Dundee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dundee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dundee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dundee, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Dundee. 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 Dundee
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 Dundee average
Your land is one point inside Dundee
Everything above resolves to Dundee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 202 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 Dundee Average
Dundee Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dundee
- ●One soil character for all of Dundee
- ●Frost dates read at Dundee's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dundee's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dundee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dundee, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dundee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dundee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dundee average
How we know this about Dundee
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 Dundee’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 Dundee
When does frost risk typically end in Dundee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dundee typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Dundee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dundee typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dundee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dundee sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 28, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dundee?
The federal record around Dundee shows 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), 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 Dundee?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dundee's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dundee'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 Dundee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dundee's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 202 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dundee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dundee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 12 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dundee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dundee's boundary and the 202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dundee'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 Dundee's 202 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dundee's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dundee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 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 Dundee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaDundee sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides