Guttenberg, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Guttenberg, 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 Guttenberg 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 Guttenberg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Guttenberg — the short answer
Guttenberg, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Guttenberg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guttenberg's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Guttenberg
Each reading below is measured for Guttenberg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGuttenberg runs about 196 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
MeasuredGuttenberg 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 Guttenberg is in
Guttenberg sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Guttenberg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clayton County.
What Grows in Guttenberg
Every plant below cleared Guttenberg's own zone 5a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Guttenberg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Guttenberg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Guttenberg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DWIGHT AND THELMA MINORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 092N02W17ACC 1937Guttenberg 1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- KANN MFG CORPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- RAUSCH PETROLEUM LTD.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ECONOMY MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NEILS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CITY OF GUTTENBERGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GUTTENBERG HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- M L WOLTER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KWIK TRIP 145Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 092N02W17CADA 00666 1937Guttenberg 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- HYDE AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guttenberg'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 Guttenberg.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of Guttenberg
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Guttenberg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Guttenberg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guttenberg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Guttenberg — Mining (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (103 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Guttenberg
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 Guttenberg average
Your land is one point inside Guttenberg
Everything above resolves to Guttenberg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Guttenberg Average
Guttenberg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Guttenberg
- ●One soil character for all of Guttenberg
- ●Frost dates read at Guttenberg's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guttenberg's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Guttenberg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guttenberg, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guttenberg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guttenberg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guttenberg average
How we know this about Guttenberg
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 Guttenberg’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 Guttenberg
When does frost risk typically end in Guttenberg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guttenberg typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Guttenberg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Guttenberg typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Guttenberg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guttenberg sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guttenberg?
The federal record around Guttenberg runs heavier than most — 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), 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 Guttenberg?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Guttenberg's scale — its 5a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guttenberg'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 Guttenberg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Guttenberg's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,404 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guttenberg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guttenberg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 24 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Guttenberg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Guttenberg's boundary and the 1,404 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Guttenberg's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Guttenberg's 1,404 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clayton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clayton 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 Clayton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Guttenberg's 1,404 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Guttenberg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,404 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 Guttenberg-wide figureread your own land →
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