Lake Panorama, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lake Panorama, 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 Lake Panorama 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 Lake Panorama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Panorama — the short answer
Lake Panorama, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Lake Panorama's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Panorama's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Panorama
Each reading below is measured for Lake Panorama itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Panorama 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
MeasuredLake Panorama 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 Lake Panorama is in
Lake Panorama sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Panorama's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guthrie County.
What Grows in Lake Panorama
Every plant below cleared Lake Panorama'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 Lake Panorama?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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 Lake Panorama
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Panorama. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE PANORAMA ASSN MAINTENANCE SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 080N31W26ADDC 21538 1969Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 080N31W12CDC 06655 1954Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- LAKE PANORAMA ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PANORAMA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- PANORAMA COMM. SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- PANORA CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HEARTLAND COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CITY OF PANORAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HEARTLAND COOPBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- DUIS DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- MIDWEST LANDSCAPINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Panorama'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 Lake Panorama.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Lake Panorama
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Panorama
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Panorama
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Panorama, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Panorama. 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 Lake Panorama
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 Lake Panorama average
Your land is one point inside Lake Panorama
Everything above resolves to Lake Panorama as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Lake Panorama Average
Lake Panorama Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lake Panorama
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Panorama
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Panorama's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Panorama's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Panorama
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Panorama, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Panorama averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Panorama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Panorama average
How we know this about Lake Panorama
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 Lake Panorama’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 Lake Panorama
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Panorama?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Panorama typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Lake Panorama?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Panorama 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 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Panorama?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Panorama sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 1, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Panorama?
The federal record around Lake Panorama shows 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Lake Panorama?
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 Lake Panorama's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Panorama'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 Lake Panorama’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Panorama's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,238 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Panorama's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Panorama's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 15 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Panorama, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Panorama's boundary and the 4,238 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 Lake Panorama'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 Lake Panorama's 4,238 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guthrie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guthrie 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 Guthrie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Panorama's 4,238 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Panorama you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,238 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Lake Panorama-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLake Panorama sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides