Huxley, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Huxley, 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 Huxley 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 Huxley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Huxley — the short answer
Huxley, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 5b is Huxley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Huxley's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Huxley
Each reading below is measured for Huxley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHuxley runs about 191 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
MeasuredHuxley sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Huxley is in
Huxley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Huxley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Story County.
What Grows in Huxley
Every plant below cleared Huxley's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Huxley?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. 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 Huxley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Huxley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF HUXLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HUXLEY AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2474Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 082N24W26AAB 03697 1948Huxley 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 082N24W26AABA 24912 1978Huxley 4Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 082N24W23DCDD 32466 1920Huxley Old 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BALLARD JUNIOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - HUXLEYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KREG TOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2842Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Huxley'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 Huxley.
Total Sites
346
within ~10 miles of Huxley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Huxley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Huxley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Huxley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Huxley — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Huxley
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 Huxley average
Your land is one point inside Huxley
Everything above resolves to Huxley 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 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 Huxley Average
Huxley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Huxley
- ●One soil character for all of Huxley
- ●Frost dates read at Huxley's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Huxley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Huxley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Huxley, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Huxley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Huxley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Huxley average
How we know this about Huxley
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 Huxley’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 Huxley
When does frost risk typically end in Huxley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Huxley typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Huxley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Huxley 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 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Huxley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Huxley sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 7, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Huxley?
The federal record around Huxley is a meaningful one — 346 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (171), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Huxley?
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 Huxley's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Huxley'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 Huxley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Huxley's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,182 acres it covers and 346 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Huxley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Huxley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 21 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 346 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Huxley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Huxley's boundary and the 2,182 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Huxley'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 Huxley's 2,182 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Story County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Story 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 Story County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Huxley's 2,182 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Huxley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,182 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Huxley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHuxley sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.