Kingston, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kingston, 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 Kingston 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 Kingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kingston — the short answer
Kingston, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Kingston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingston's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kingston
Each reading below is measured for Kingston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKingston runs about 211 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
MeasuredKingston 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 Kingston is in
Kingston sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kingston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Des Moines County.
What Grows in Kingston
Every plant below cleared Kingston's own zone 5b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kingston?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Kingston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kingston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 071N02W01CCDC 00518 1937Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- SHORT STUFFS-KingstonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 072N02W25CAB 04791 1950Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 071N02W09ACB 06877 1954Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 072N02W23CBDC 17358 1964Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 072N02W23ADB 03044 1947Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- SHARAR FLYING SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 071N02W21DDCA 10981 1959Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 072N02W14BABC 10743 1954Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- AGRI GRAIN MARKETINGBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- 072N02W30CAA 06883 1954Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 071N02W19DDAA 10289 1956Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingston'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 Kingston.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Kingston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kingston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kingston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Kingston. 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 Kingston
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 Kingston average
Your land is one point inside Kingston
Everything above resolves to Kingston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Kingston Average
Kingston Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kingston
- ●One soil character for all of Kingston
- ●Frost dates read at Kingston's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingston's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kingston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingston, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingston average
How we know this about Kingston
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 Kingston’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 Kingston
When does frost risk typically end in Kingston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingston typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Kingston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kingston typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kingston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingston sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 18, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingston?
The federal record around Kingston shows 131 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Kingston?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kingston's scale — its 5b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingston'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 Kingston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kingston's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,134 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kingston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kingston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 1 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kingston, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kingston's boundary and the 1,134 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kingston'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 Kingston's 1,134 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Des Moines County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Des Moines 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 Des Moines County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kingston's 1,134 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kingston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,134 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Kingston-wide figureread your own land →