Fort Atkinson, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Atkinson, 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 Fort Atkinson 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 Fort Atkinson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Atkinson — the short answer
Fort Atkinson, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 204 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 204 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 Fort Atkinson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Atkinson's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Atkinson
Each reading below is measured for Fort Atkinson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Atkinson runs about 182 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
MeasuredFort Atkinson 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 Fort Atkinson is in
Fort Atkinson sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Atkinson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Winneshiek County.
What Grows in Fort Atkinson
Every plant below cleared Fort Atkinson's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Atkinson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Fort Atkinson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Atkinson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WINNESHIEK COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MIHM TRANSPORTATION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WINNESHIEK CO CONSERVATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- LICKETY SPLITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JERRY FISCHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FARMERS COOP PRODUCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FAYETTE COUNTY DIST SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- KENNETH EINCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- NORTHEAST IOWA COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- 097N09W19CADA 11755 1960Spillville 2Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- SOUTH WINNESHIEK COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- HEYING OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Atkinson'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 Fort Atkinson.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Fort Atkinson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Atkinson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Atkinson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Atkinson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Atkinson. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Atkinson
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 Fort Atkinson average
Your land is one point inside Fort Atkinson
Everything above resolves to Fort Atkinson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 204 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 Fort Atkinson Average
Fort Atkinson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fort Atkinson
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Atkinson
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Atkinson's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Atkinson's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Atkinson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Atkinson, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Atkinson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Atkinson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Atkinson average
How we know this about Fort Atkinson
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 Fort Atkinson’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 Fort Atkinson
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Atkinson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Atkinson typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Fort Atkinson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Atkinson typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Atkinson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Atkinson sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 3, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Atkinson?
The federal record around Fort Atkinson shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Atkinson?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Atkinson's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Atkinson'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 Fort Atkinson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Atkinson's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 204 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Atkinson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Atkinson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Atkinson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Atkinson's boundary and the 204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Atkinson's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Atkinson's 204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Winneshiek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Winneshiek 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 Winneshiek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Atkinson's 204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Atkinson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Atkinson-wide figureread your own land →
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