Klemme, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Klemme, 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 Klemme 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 Klemme — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Klemme — the short answer
Klemme, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 320 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 320 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 Klemme's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Klemme's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Klemme
Each reading below is measured for Klemme itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKlemme runs about 182 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
MeasuredKlemme 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 Klemme is in
Klemme sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Klemme's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hancock County.
What Grows in Klemme
Every plant below cleared Klemme's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Klemme?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Klemme
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Klemme. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLEMME COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LAND O LAKES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HANCOCK CO ENGR OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KLEMME TOWN MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 095N23W31ACA 11168 1959Klemme 2Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 095N23W31ABDD 00265 1934Klemme 1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- KLEMME KEY TOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KLEMME COOP GRAIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ITC TRANSMISSION - MIDWEST HANCOCK STATIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- HANCOCK COUNTY WIND ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- GOODELL CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 095N24W21ADAD 1996NAWQA IADRN-2Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Klemme'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 Klemme.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Klemme
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Klemme
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Klemme
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Klemme, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Klemme. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Klemme
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 Klemme average
Your land is one point inside Klemme
Everything above resolves to Klemme as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 320 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 Klemme Average
Klemme Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Klemme
- ●One soil character for all of Klemme
- ●Frost dates read at Klemme's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Klemme's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Klemme
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Klemme, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Klemme averages can't show:
We read public map data around Klemme — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Klemme average
How we know this about Klemme
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 Klemme’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 Klemme
When does frost risk typically end in Klemme?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Klemme typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Klemme?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Klemme typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Klemme?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Klemme sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 3, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Klemme?
The federal record around Klemme shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), 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 Klemme?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Klemme's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Klemme'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 Klemme’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Klemme's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 320 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Klemme's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Klemme's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Klemme, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Klemme's boundary and the 320 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Klemme'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 Klemme's 320 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hancock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hancock 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 Hancock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Klemme's 320 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Klemme you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 320 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 Klemme-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaKlemme sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.