Holiday Lake, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Holiday Lake, 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 Holiday Lake 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 Holiday Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holiday Lake — the short answer
Holiday Lake, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Holiday Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holiday Lake's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holiday Lake
Each reading below is measured for Holiday Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoliday Lake runs about 190 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
MeasuredHoliday Lake 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 Holiday Lake is in
Holiday Lake sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Holiday Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Poweshiek County.
What Grows in Holiday Lake
Every plant below cleared Holiday Lake's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holiday Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Holiday Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holiday Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 082N14W32AABNitrate · 4.6 mi
- THOMBERT INC - BROOKLYNToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
- THOMBERT INC - BROOKLYNBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- 080N14W23BDB 1957Brooklyn 4Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- B-G-M HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- V A LAVENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- LINKS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- HOLIDAY LAKE MAINTENANCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- POW-JASPER FARM SERVICE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- T I P RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- B-G-M COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- 080N14W16DCD 04194 1950Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holiday Lake'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 Holiday Lake.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Holiday Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holiday Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holiday Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holiday Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Holiday Lake. 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 Holiday Lake
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 Holiday Lake average
Your land is one point inside Holiday Lake
Everything above resolves to Holiday Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 town 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 Holiday Lake Average
Holiday Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Holiday Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Holiday Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Holiday Lake's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holiday Lake's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holiday Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holiday Lake, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holiday Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holiday Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holiday Lake average
How we know this about Holiday Lake
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Holiday Lake’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Holiday Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Holiday Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holiday Lake 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 Holiday Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holiday Lake typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holiday Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holiday Lake sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holiday Lake?
The federal record around Holiday Lake shows 102 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.6 miles 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 Holiday Lake?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holiday Lake's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holiday Lake'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 Holiday Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Holiday Lake's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,712 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holiday Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holiday Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holiday Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 4.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holiday Lake's boundary and the 1,712 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holiday Lake'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 Holiday Lake's 1,712 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Poweshiek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Poweshiek 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 Poweshiek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holiday Lake's 1,712 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holiday Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,712 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 4.6 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 Holiday Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHoliday Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.