George, 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.
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 George, 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 George 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 George — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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George — the short answer
George, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- 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 George's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against George's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in George
Each reading below is measured for George itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGeorge runs about 174 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
MeasuredGeorge 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 George is in
George sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at George's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lyon County.
What Grows in George
Every plant below cleared George's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in George?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 George
Closest first, within ~10 miles of George. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGE COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SIEBRING MFG COBrownfields · 400 ft
- MODDER PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WARNTJES PAINT & BODY INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- WORTMAN BROTHERS ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- OTTER VALLEY COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LYON COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 098N44W02ADDB 1910George 1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 098N44W02ACCA 1935George 2Nitrate · 1100 ft
- COOPERATIVE FARMERS ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1536Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 098N44W01BDBB 1955George 3Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from George'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 George.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of George
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of George
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of George
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around George, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of George — Nitrate (28 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in George
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 George average
Your land is one point inside George
Everything above resolves to George 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 George Average
George Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across George
- ●One soil character for all of George
- ●Frost dates read at George's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not George's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in George
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in George, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that George averages can't show:
We read public map data around George — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the George average
How we know this about George
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 George’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 George
When does frost risk typically end in George?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in George typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in George?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in George typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in George?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, George sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 28, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in George?
The federal record around George shows 56 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), 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 George?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at George's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of George'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 George’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at George's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,468 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- George's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- George's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 12 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near George, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- George's boundary and the 1,468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at George'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 George's 1,468 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among George's 1,468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of George you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,468 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 George-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaGeorge sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides