Kensett, 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 Kensett, 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 Kensett 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 Kensett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kensett — the short answer
Kensett, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 648 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 648 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 Kensett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kensett's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kensett
Each reading below is measured for Kensett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKensett runs about 181 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
MeasuredKensett 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 Kensett is in
Kensett sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kensett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worth County.
What Grows in Kensett
Every plant below cleared Kensett's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kensett?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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 Kensett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kensett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 099N20W33ACBC 40502 1956Kensett 1Nitrate · 400 ft
- BRATRUD GOLFUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DENNIS CHRISTENSENUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 099N20W33BDAB 19172 1966Kensett 2Nitrate · 650 ft
- FORMER CEDAR COUNTY FSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DONS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ARLEIGH HOLSTADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WORTH COUNTY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KENSETT HOMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PETERSON EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WILD HORSE TRADING INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- NEW HEAVEN CHEMICALS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kensett'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 Kensett.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Kensett
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kensett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kensett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kensett, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Kensett. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kensett
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 Kensett average
Your land is one point inside Kensett
Everything above resolves to Kensett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 648 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 Kensett Average
Kensett Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Kensett
- ●One soil character for all of Kensett
- ●Frost dates read at Kensett's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kensett's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kensett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kensett, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kensett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kensett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kensett average
How we know this about Kensett
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 Kensett’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 Kensett
When does frost risk typically end in Kensett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kensett typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Kensett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kensett 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kensett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kensett sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 1, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kensett?
The federal record around Kensett shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Nitrate 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 Kensett?
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 Kensett's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kensett'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 Kensett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kensett's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 648 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kensett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kensett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 15 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kensett, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kensett's boundary and the 648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kensett'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 Kensett's 648 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worth 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 Worth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kensett's 648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kensett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 648 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Kensett-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaKensett sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.