Hawkeye, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Hawkeye, 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 Hawkeye 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 Hawkeye — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hawkeye — the short answer
Hawkeye, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 430 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 430 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 Hawkeye's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawkeye's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawkeye
Each reading below is measured for Hawkeye itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHawkeye runs about 179 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
MeasuredHawkeye 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 Hawkeye is in
Hawkeye sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hawkeye's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Hawkeye
Every plant below cleared Hawkeye's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hawkeye?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Hawkeye
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawkeye. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRIPLE L GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- 094N09W30ABAA 25513 1978Hawkeye (78-1, 1) 3Nitrate · 300 ft
- GAS N GOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HAWKEYE COOPERATIVE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HAWKEYE COOPERATIVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 094N09W30ABA 03353 1948Hawkeye 2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 094N09W05AABD 19618 1966Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- FT-94/9W-0001 (FT-1)Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 094N09W14ADDA 16865 1964Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- 094N09W24CADB 12627 1960Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 095N10W34BCD 02810 1947Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 095N10W25BCA 04637 1950Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawkeye'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 Hawkeye.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Hawkeye
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawkeye
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawkeye
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawkeye, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Hawkeye. 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 Hawkeye
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 Hawkeye average
Your land is one point inside Hawkeye
Everything above resolves to Hawkeye as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 430 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 Hawkeye Average
Hawkeye Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hawkeye
- ●One soil character for all of Hawkeye
- ●Frost dates read at Hawkeye's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawkeye's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawkeye
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawkeye, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawkeye averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawkeye — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawkeye average
How we know this about Hawkeye
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 Hawkeye’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 Hawkeye
When does frost risk typically end in Hawkeye?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawkeye typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Hawkeye?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawkeye typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hawkeye?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawkeye sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 1, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hawkeye?
The federal record around Hawkeye shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), 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 Hawkeye?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hawkeye's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawkeye'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 Hawkeye’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hawkeye's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 430 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawkeye's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hawkeye's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 15 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawkeye, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawkeye's boundary and the 430 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hawkeye'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 Hawkeye's 430 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hawkeye's 430 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawkeye you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 430 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 Hawkeye-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHawkeye sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides