Frederika, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Frederika, 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 Frederika 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 Frederika — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Frederika — the short answer
Frederika, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 235 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 235 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 Frederika's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Frederika's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Frederika
Each reading below is measured for Frederika itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFrederika runs about 185 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
MeasuredFrederika 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 Frederika is in
Frederika sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Frederika's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bremer County.
What Grows in Frederika
Every plant below cleared Frederika's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Frederika?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 19 — 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 Frederika
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Frederika. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COANS GENERAL REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BASIC MATERIALS QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FREDERICKSBURG FARMERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WILLIAMSTOWN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- DICK'S PETROLEUMBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- POTTER SIDING CRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- 092N12W04AADD 04694 1950Tripoli 2Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- GUPPYS ON THE GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- KEVINS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- DICK'S TRUCK SHOPBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- BUHR CHEVROLET-BUICKBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- FIGANBAUM GRAIN, INCBrownfields · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Frederika'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 Frederika.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Frederika
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Frederika
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Frederika
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Frederika
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 Frederika average
Your land is one point inside Frederika
Everything above resolves to Frederika as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 235 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 Frederika Average
Frederika Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Frederika
- ●One soil character for all of Frederika
- ●Frost dates read at Frederika's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Frederika's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Frederika
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Frederika, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Frederika averages can't show:
We read public map data around Frederika — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Frederika average
How we know this about Frederika
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 Frederika’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 Frederika
When does frost risk typically end in Frederika?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Frederika 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 Frederika?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Frederika typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Frederika?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Frederika sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Frederika?
The federal record around Frederika shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Frederika?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Frederika's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Frederika'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 Frederika’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Frederika's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 235 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Frederika's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Frederika's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Frederika, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Frederika's boundary and the 235 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Frederika'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 Frederika's 235 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bremer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bremer 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 Bremer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Frederika's 235 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Frederika you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 235 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Frederika-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaFrederika sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides