Hardy, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hardy, 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 Hardy 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 Hardy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hardy — the short answer
Hardy, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 288 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 288 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 Hardy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hardy's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hardy
Each reading below is measured for Hardy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHardy runs about 186 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
MeasuredHardy 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 Hardy is in
Hardy sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hardy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Humboldt County.
What Grows in Hardy
Every plant below cleared Hardy's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hardy?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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 Hardy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hardy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 092N27W05DAAD 1966Hardy 2Nitrate · 200 ft
- HARDY COOP ELEVATOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HUMBOLDT COUNTY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 092N27W05DDA 02171 1945Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 092N27W05CB 09672 1957HardyNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 093N27W21DD 09107 1957Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 093N27W36ACCB 1944Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 093N27W36ACD 04815 1951Renwick 2Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 093N27W36ACDB 1938Renwick 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- CHRIS SCHEIDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- FORMER LEHIGH CLAY PRODUCTS SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hardy'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 Hardy.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Hardy
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hardy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hardy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hardy, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Hardy. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hardy
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 Hardy average
Your land is one point inside Hardy
Everything above resolves to Hardy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 288 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 Hardy Average
Hardy Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hardy
- ●One soil character for all of Hardy
- ●Frost dates read at Hardy's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hardy's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hardy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hardy, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hardy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hardy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hardy average
How we know this about Hardy
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 Hardy’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 Hardy
When does frost risk typically end in Hardy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hardy typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Hardy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hardy 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 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hardy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hardy sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hardy?
The federal record around Hardy shows 110 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Nitrate 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 Hardy?
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 Hardy's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hardy'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 Hardy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hardy's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 288 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hardy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hardy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hardy, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hardy's boundary and the 288 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hardy'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 Hardy's 288 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Humboldt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Humboldt 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 Humboldt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hardy's 288 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hardy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 288 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Hardy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHardy sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.