Grandview, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grandview, 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 Grandview 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 Grandview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grandview — the short answer
Grandview, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 146 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 146 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 5b is Grandview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grandview's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grandview
Each reading below is measured for Grandview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrandview runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGrandview sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Grandview is in
Grandview sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grandview's own centroid rather than borrowed from Louisa County.
What Grows in Grandview
Every plant below cleared Grandview's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grandview?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Grandview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grandview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRANDVIEW COUNTRY CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PETRO & MOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GRANDVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- 075N03W22DCBD 1975Grandview 3Nitrate · 800 ft
- 075N03W22DCBD 18800 1976Grandview 2Nitrate · 800 ft
- 075N03W22DCBD 18796 1966Grandview 1Nitrate · 900 ft
- 075N03W09DCDC L&M SchoolNitrate · 2.2 mi
- GRAIN PROCESSING CORP CCR - LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- 075N03W24DABB 1993USGS Muscatine 50BNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 075N03W24DABB 1992USGS Muscatine 50ANitrate · 2.3 mi
- 075N02W31BBCD 1992USGS Muscatine 58Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 075N03W13ABAA 1992USGS Muscatine 41Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grandview'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 Grandview.
Total Sites
362
within ~10 miles of Grandview
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grandview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grandview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grandview, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 264 sites within ~10 miles of Grandview. 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 Grandview
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 Grandview average
Your land is one point inside Grandview
Everything above resolves to Grandview as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 146 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 Grandview Average
Grandview Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Grandview
- ●One soil character for all of Grandview
- ●Frost dates read at Grandview's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grandview's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grandview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grandview, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grandview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grandview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grandview average
How we know this about Grandview
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 Grandview’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 Grandview
When does frost risk typically end in Grandview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grandview typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Grandview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grandview typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grandview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grandview sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 11, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grandview?
The federal record around Grandview is a meaningful one — 362 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (264), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Grandview?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grandview's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grandview'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 Grandview’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grandview's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 146 acres it covers and 362 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grandview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grandview's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 25 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 362 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grandview, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grandview's boundary and the 146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grandview's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grandview's 146 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Louisa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Louisa 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 Louisa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grandview's 146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grandview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 146 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 Grandview-wide figureread your own land →