Kellerton, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kellerton, 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 Kellerton 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 Kellerton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kellerton — the short answer
Kellerton, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 413 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 413 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 Kellerton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kellerton's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kellerton
Each reading below is measured for Kellerton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKellerton runs about 199 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
MeasuredKellerton 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 Kellerton is in
Kellerton sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kellerton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ringgold County.
What Grows in Kellerton
Every plant below cleared Kellerton's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kellerton?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Kellerton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kellerton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MUNYON MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 068N28W02CCAA 00173 1934Camp Kellerton City ParkNitrate · 650 ft
- KELLERTON OIL & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 068N28W09ACC 19437 1967Kellerton 5Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- REASONERS GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- 067N27W03DCAB 00050 1927LamoniNitrate · 7.9 mi
- LAMONI COMMUNITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- LMU GENERATION STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- FARMERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- INDUSTRIAL HARDFACINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- LAMONI CAR CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2529Underground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kellerton'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 Kellerton.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Kellerton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kellerton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kellerton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kellerton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 33 sites within ~10 miles of Kellerton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kellerton
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 Kellerton average
Your land is one point inside Kellerton
Everything above resolves to Kellerton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 413 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 Kellerton Average
Kellerton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kellerton
- ●One soil character for all of Kellerton
- ●Frost dates read at Kellerton's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kellerton's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kellerton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kellerton, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kellerton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kellerton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kellerton average
How we know this about Kellerton
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 Kellerton’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 Kellerton
When does frost risk typically end in Kellerton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kellerton typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Kellerton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kellerton typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kellerton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kellerton sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kellerton?
The federal record around Kellerton shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), 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 Kellerton?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kellerton's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kellerton'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 Kellerton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kellerton's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 413 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kellerton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kellerton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kellerton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kellerton's boundary and the 413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kellerton's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kellerton's 413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ringgold County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ringgold 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 Ringgold County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kellerton's 413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kellerton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 413 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 Kellerton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaKellerton sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides