Graf, 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.
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 Graf, 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 Graf 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 Graf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Graf — the short answer
Graf, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 85 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 85 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 Graf's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Graf's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Graf
Each reading below is measured for Graf itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGraf runs about 189 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
MeasuredGraf 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 Graf is in
Graf sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Graf's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dubuque County.
What Grows in Graf
Every plant below cleared Graf's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Graf?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Graf
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Graf. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL KUETERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SMITTYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CAMP LITTLE CLOUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SUNDOWN SKI AREA-MGV CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- THREE RIVERS FS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- NORTHEAST IOWA TECHNICAL INSTITUTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- MCDERMOTT EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SWISS VALLEY PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- BERRY PLASTICSBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT DBQBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- ROADWAY EXPRESS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Graf'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 Graf.
Total Sites
275
within ~10 miles of Graf
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Graf
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Graf
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Graf, Mining runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Graf. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Graf
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 Graf average
Your land is one point inside Graf
Everything above resolves to Graf as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 85 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 Graf Average
Graf Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Graf
- ●One soil character for all of Graf
- ●Frost dates read at Graf's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Graf's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Graf
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Graf, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Graf averages can't show:
We read public map data around Graf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Graf average
How we know this about Graf
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 Graf’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 Graf
When does frost risk typically end in Graf?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Graf typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Graf?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Graf typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Graf?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Graf sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 6, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Graf?
The federal record around Graf runs heavier than most — 275 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Graf?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Graf's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Graf'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 Graf’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Graf's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 85 acres it covers and 275 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Graf's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Graf's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 20 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 275 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Graf, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Graf's boundary and the 85 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Graf's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Graf's 85 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 Graf's 85 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Graf you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 85 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 Graf-wide figureread your own land →
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