Farley, 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 Farley, 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 Farley 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 Farley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Farley — the short answer
Farley, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 5a is Farley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farley's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farley
Each reading below is measured for Farley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarley 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
MeasuredFarley 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 Farley is in
Farley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Farley'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 Farley
Every plant below cleared Farley'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 Farley?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Farley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARLEY SERVICE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- 088N01W07CDA 17980 1966Farley 2Nitrate · 500 ft
- J P SCHERRMAN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FORMER SIMONS FEED STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SCHUELLER CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- J P SCHERRMAN INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- DELANEYS AUTO AND AGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2561Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FARLEY CITY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EAST IOWA MACHINE COMPANY (EIMCO)Toxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- SIMONS TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- FARLEY ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farley'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 Farley.
Total Sites
173
within ~10 miles of Farley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farley, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Farley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Farley
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 Farley average
Your land is one point inside Farley
Everything above resolves to Farley 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 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 Farley Average
Farley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Farley
- ●One soil character for all of Farley
- ●Frost dates read at Farley's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farley's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farley, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farley average
How we know this about Farley
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 Farley’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 Farley
When does frost risk typically end in Farley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farley typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Farley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farley typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farley sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 29, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farley?
The federal record around Farley shows 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), 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 Farley?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farley's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farley'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 Farley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Farley's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,037 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 13 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farley's boundary and the 1,037 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Farley 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 Farley's 1,037 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 Farley's 1,037 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,037 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 Farley-wide figureread your own land →
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