Hampton, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hampton, 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 Hampton 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 Hampton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hampton — the short answer
Hampton, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Hampton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hampton's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hampton
Each reading below is measured for Hampton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHampton runs about 184 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
MeasuredHampton 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 Hampton is in
Hampton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hampton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Hampton
Every plant below cleared Hampton's own zone 5a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hampton?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Hampton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hampton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEEDS LAKE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- CORNU STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- FRANKLIN CO MAINTENANCE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- HAROLD BURMISTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- HAMPTON COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- GIT-N-GO #9Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BARNES REAL ESTATE OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- NAPA AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WESSELS CROSSROADS OF HAMPTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THE WHISKERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hampton'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 Hampton.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Hampton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hampton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hampton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hampton, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Hampton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hampton
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 Hampton average
Your land is one point inside Hampton
Everything above resolves to Hampton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Hampton Average
Hampton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hampton
- ●One soil character for all of Hampton
- ●Frost dates read at Hampton's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hampton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hampton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hampton, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hampton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hampton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hampton average
How we know this about Hampton
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 Hampton’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 Hampton
When does frost risk typically end in Hampton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hampton typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Hampton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hampton typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hampton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hampton sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hampton?
The federal record around Hampton shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), 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 Hampton?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hampton's scale — its 5a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hampton'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 Hampton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hampton's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,832 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hampton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hampton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hampton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hampton's boundary and the 2,832 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hampton'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 Hampton's 2,832 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hampton's 2,832 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hampton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,832 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 Hampton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHampton sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.