Dyersville, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Dyersville, 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 Dyersville 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 Dyersville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dyersville — the short answer
Dyersville, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 4K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Dyersville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dyersville's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dyersville
Each reading below is measured for Dyersville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDyersville runs about 174 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
MeasuredDyersville 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 Dyersville is in
Dyersville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dyersville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dubuque County is mostly Driftless Area. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dyersville
Every plant below cleared Dyersville's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dyersville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 10 — 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 Dyersville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dyersville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ITC MIDWEST - DYERSVILLEBrownfields · 850 ft
- JEFF''S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BI COUNTY AMBULANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- IOWA OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 089N02W32BCD 22538 1970Dyersville 2Nitrate · 1200 ft
- RACING CAR CHAMPIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SCHERRMANS IMPL & APPL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- IDOT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DYERSVILLE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RON THEISEN TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TAUKE MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DYERSVILLE READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dyersville'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 Dyersville.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Dyersville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dyersville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dyersville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dyersville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Dyersville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dyersville
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 Dyersville average
Your land is one point inside Dyersville
Everything above resolves to Dyersville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Dyersville Average
Dyersville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dyersville
- ●One soil character for all of Dyersville
- ●Frost dates read at Dyersville's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dyersville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dyersville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dyersville, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dyersville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dyersville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dyersville average
How we know this about Dyersville
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 Dyersville’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 Dyersville
When does frost risk typically end in Dyersville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dyersville 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 Dyersville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dyersville typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dyersville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dyersville sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 26, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dyersville?
The federal record around Dyersville shows 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Dyersville?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dyersville's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dyersville'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 Dyersville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dyersville's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,451 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dyersville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dyersville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 10 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dyersville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dyersville's boundary and the 4,451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dyersville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dyersville's 4,451 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dubuque County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dubuque 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 Dubuque County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dyersville's 4,451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dyersville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,451 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Dyersville-wide figureread your own land →
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