Elkader, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Elkader, 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 Elkader 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 Elkader — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elkader — the short answer
Elkader, Iowa: USDA zone 4b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 875 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 875 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 4b is Elkader's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkader's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkader
Each reading below is measured for Elkader itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElkader runs about 184 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
MeasuredElkader sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Elkader is in
Elkader sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elkader's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clayton County.
What Grows in Elkader
Every plant below cleared Elkader's own zone 4b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elkader?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Elkader
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkader. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLAYTON COUNTY CONSERVATION BOARD_________________Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PRIEMS STEEN SUPRIEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CRANDALLS COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- EVERETT''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 093N05W23BCDB 00037 1927Elkader 3Nitrate · 650 ft
- CENTRAL COMM SCH/BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ELKADER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- J P FITZGERALD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1400 ft
- THE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CITY OF ELKADER CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SWALES CONCRETE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elkader'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 Elkader.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Elkader
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elkader
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkader
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elkader, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elkader — Nitrate (26 sites) and Mining (5 sites). 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Elkader
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 Elkader average
Your land is one point inside Elkader
Everything above resolves to Elkader as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 875 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 Elkader Average
Elkader Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Elkader
- ●One soil character for all of Elkader
- ●Frost dates read at Elkader's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkader's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkader
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkader, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkader averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkader — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkader average
How we know this about Elkader
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 Elkader’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 Elkader
When does frost risk typically end in Elkader?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkader typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Elkader?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkader typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elkader?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkader sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elkader?
The federal record around Elkader shows 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), 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 Elkader?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elkader's scale — its 4b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkader'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 Elkader’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elkader's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 875 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkader's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elkader's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkader, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkader's boundary and the 875 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elkader's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elkader's 875 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clayton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clayton 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 Clayton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elkader's 875 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkader you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 875 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 Elkader-wide figureread your own land →
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