Galt, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Galt, 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 Galt 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 Galt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Galt — the short answer
Galt, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 355 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 355 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 Galt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Galt's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Galt
Each reading below is measured for Galt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGalt runs about 178 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
MeasuredGalt 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 Galt is in
Galt sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Galt's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wright County.
What Grows in Galt
Every plant below cleared Galt's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Galt?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Galt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Galt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 091N23W18DBCA 39901 1945Galt 1Nitrate · 200 ft
- WRIGHT COUNTY SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SPARKY''S ONE STOP #14Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CENTRUM VALLEY FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DECOSTER FARMS OF IOWAToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- CLARION MAINT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BRUNS MACHINE & WELDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- HILLCREST FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- WRIGHT COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- HARRYS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- WEST BEND ELEVATOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- LONG PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Galt'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 Galt.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Galt
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Galt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Galt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Galt, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 81 sites within ~10 miles of Galt. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Galt
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 Galt average
Your land is one point inside Galt
Everything above resolves to Galt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 355 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 Galt Average
Galt Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Galt
- ●One soil character for all of Galt
- ●Frost dates read at Galt's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Galt's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Galt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Galt, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Galt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Galt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Galt average
How we know this about Galt
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 Galt’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 Galt
When does frost risk typically end in Galt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Galt 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 Galt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Galt 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Galt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Galt sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Sep 29, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Galt?
The federal record around Galt shows 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Nitrate 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 Galt?
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 Galt's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Galt'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 Galt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Galt's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 355 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Galt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Galt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 13 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Galt, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Galt's boundary and the 355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Galt'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 Galt's 355 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wright County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wright 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 Wright County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Galt's 355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Galt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Galt-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaGalt sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.