Greeley, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Greeley, 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 Greeley 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 Greeley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Greeley — the short answer
Greeley, Iowa: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 240 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 240 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 4b is Greeley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greeley's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greeley
Each reading below is measured for Greeley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreeley runs about 167 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
MeasuredGreeley sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Greeley is in
Greeley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Greeley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Greeley
Every plant below cleared Greeley's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greeley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Greeley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greeley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF GREELEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CARGILL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- EUGENE PALMERSHEIMUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- 089N04W04DCC 17860 1965Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- RANDYS REPAIR AND BODYBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- EDGEWOOD-COLESBURG COMM SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- KENDRICK LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- LLOYD KELCHEN GRAIN LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- EDGEWOOD FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 090N05W02ABB 05650 1952Edgewood 2Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- CVG/ MWC EDGEWOODToxics Release Inventory · 5.0 mi
- KENDRICK INC NORTHBrownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greeley'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 Greeley.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Greeley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greeley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greeley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greeley, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Greeley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Greeley
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 Greeley average
Your land is one point inside Greeley
Everything above resolves to Greeley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 240 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 Greeley Average
Greeley Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Greeley
- ●One soil character for all of Greeley
- ●Frost dates read at Greeley's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greeley's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greeley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greeley, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greeley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greeley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greeley average
How we know this about Greeley
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 Greeley’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 Greeley
When does frost risk typically end in Greeley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greeley typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Greeley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greeley typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greeley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greeley sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 25, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greeley?
The federal record around Greeley shows 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), 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 Greeley?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greeley's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greeley'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 Greeley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Greeley's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 240 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greeley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greeley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 9 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greeley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greeley's boundary and the 240 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greeley'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 Greeley's 240 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greeley's 240 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greeley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 240 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 Greeley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaGreeley sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides