Imogene, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Imogene, 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 Imogene 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 Imogene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Imogene — the short answer
Imogene, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 316 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 316 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 Imogene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Imogene's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Imogene
Each reading below is measured for Imogene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredImogene runs about 205 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredImogene 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 Imogene is in
Imogene sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Imogene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fremont County.
What Grows in Imogene
Every plant below cleared Imogene's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Imogene?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Imogene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Imogene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 069N39W06CDDD 00603 1937Shenandoah 18Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 069N39W08BCCC 00601 1937Shenandoah 19Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- FORMER NISHNA VALLEY TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- A M COHRON & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- JOHNSON BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- SHERIDAN''S 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2699Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 069N39W18BCAA 00593 1937Shenandoah 20Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- GEORGES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- ESSEX COMM SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- 069N41W12DDD 1948Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- C W LONGINAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Imogene'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 Imogene.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Imogene
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Imogene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Imogene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Imogene, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Imogene — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Nitrate (30 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Imogene
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 Imogene average
Your land is one point inside Imogene
Everything above resolves to Imogene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 316 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 Imogene Average
Imogene Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Imogene
- ●One soil character for all of Imogene
- ●Frost dates read at Imogene's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Imogene's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Imogene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Imogene, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Imogene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Imogene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Imogene average
How we know this about Imogene
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 Imogene’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 Imogene
When does frost risk typically end in Imogene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Imogene typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Imogene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Imogene typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Imogene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Imogene sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Imogene?
The federal record around Imogene shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Nitrate record about 5.9 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 Imogene?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Imogene's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Imogene'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 Imogene’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Imogene's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 316 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Imogene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Imogene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Imogene, the closest Nitrate record about 5.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Imogene's boundary and the 316 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Imogene'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 Imogene's 316 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fremont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fremont 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 Fremont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Imogene's 316 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Imogene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 316 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 5.9 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 Imogene-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Growing region
Nearby growing guides