Granger, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Granger, 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 Granger 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 Granger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Granger — the short answer
Granger, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Granger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Granger's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Granger
Each reading below is measured for Granger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGranger runs about 198 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
MeasuredGranger 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 Granger is in
Granger sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Granger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Granger
Every plant below cleared Granger's own zone 5b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Granger?
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 23 — 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 Granger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Granger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARR-NUNN TRANSPORTATION INCBrownfields · 700 ft
- MANNING TRUCK LINES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GRANGER INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OXLEY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SCHULTE''S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GRANGER MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WOODWARD-GRANGER COMM. SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE #2367Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2559Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DALLAS COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BENEVENTI CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BENEVENTI CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Granger'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 Granger.
Total Sites
312
within ~10 miles of Granger
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Granger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Granger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Granger, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Granger — PFAS (7 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Granger
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 Granger average
Your land is one point inside Granger
Everything above resolves to Granger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Granger Average
Granger Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Granger
- ●One soil character for all of Granger
- ●Frost dates read at Granger's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Granger's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Granger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Granger, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Granger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Granger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Granger average
How we know this about Granger
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 Granger’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 Granger
When does frost risk typically end in Granger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Granger 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 Granger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Granger typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Granger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Granger sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 9, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Granger?
The federal record around Granger is a meaningful one — 312 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Granger?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Granger's scale — its 5b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Granger'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 Granger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Granger's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,581 acres it covers and 312 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Granger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Granger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 23 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 312 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Granger, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Granger's boundary and the 1,581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Granger'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 Granger's 1,581 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Granger's 1,581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Granger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,581 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Granger-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaGranger sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.