Lake Park, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lake Park, 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 Park 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 Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Park — the short answer
Lake Park, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 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 5a is Lake Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Park'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 Park
Each reading below is measured for Lake Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Park 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 Park 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 Park is in
Lake Park sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dickinson County.
What Grows in Lake Park
Every plant below cleared Lake Park'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 Park?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Lake Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TITAN MACHINERY - LAKE PARKBrownfields · 1300 ft
- LAKE PARK MUNICIPAL UTILITIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LAKE PARK COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ARCO DEHYDRATING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DICKINSON COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JENSEN FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HARRIS-LAKE PARK COMM SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOME OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STANS CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LAKE PARK BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 099N38W11CCBBNitrate · 3.1 mi
- 100N37W07CDCC 05438 1952Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Park'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 Park.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Lake Park
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Park — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
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 Park
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 Park average
Your land is one point inside Lake Park
Everything above resolves to Lake Park 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 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 Lake Park Average
Lake Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lake Park
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Park
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Park's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Park's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Park, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Park average
How we know this about Lake Park
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 Lake Park’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 Lake Park
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Park 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 Lake Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Park 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 Lake Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Park 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 Lake Park?
The federal record around Lake Park shows 67 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Park?
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 Lake Park's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Park'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 Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Park's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,010 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Park's boundary and the 1,010 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 Park'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 Park's 1,010 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dickinson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dickinson 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 Dickinson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Park's 1,010 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,010 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLake Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides