Greene, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Greene, 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 Greene 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 Greene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greene — the short answer
Greene, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 730 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 730 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 Greene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greene's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greene
Each reading below is measured for Greene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreene runs about 188 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
MeasuredGreene 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 Greene is in
Greene sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Greene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butler County.
What Grows in Greene
Every plant below cleared Greene's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greene?
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 19 — 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 Greene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- O''BRIEN STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- MAJEWSKI TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- TEEPLE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- GREENE COMMUNITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GREENE CITY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- OBRIEN BOAT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 093N17W01CACD 1900Greene OldNitrate · 550 ft
- JENSENS BRIDGEWAY QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 093N17W01ACCC 03522 1948Greene 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- AMERICAN TOOL & ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BUTLER COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greene'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 Greene.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Greene
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greene, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Greene. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Greene
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 Greene average
Your land is one point inside Greene
Everything above resolves to Greene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 730 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 Greene Average
Greene Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Greene
- ●One soil character for all of Greene
- ●Frost dates read at Greene's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greene's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greene, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greene average
How we know this about Greene
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 Greene’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 Greene
When does frost risk typically end in Greene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greene 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 Greene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greene typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greene sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 5, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greene?
The federal record around Greene shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), 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 Greene?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greene's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greene'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 Greene’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Greene's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 730 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 19 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greene, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greene's boundary and the 730 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greene'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 Greene's 730 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greene's 730 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 730 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 Greene-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaGreene sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides