Lake View, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Lake View, 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 View 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 View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake View — the short answer
Lake View, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- 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 View's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake View's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake View
Each reading below is measured for Lake View itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake View runs about 188 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 View 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 View is in
Lake View sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake View's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sac County.
What Grows in Lake View
Every plant below cleared Lake View's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake View?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Lake View
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake View. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE VIEW CONCRETE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BLACK HAWK LAKE PATROL STATION____________________Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 087N36W33CBAD 40554 1956Lake View 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- HANCOCK CONCRETE PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- BLACK HAWK FISHERIES SEE FILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 087N36W33CBAC 40553 1945Lake View 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SHAMROCK BOAT SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 087N36W33CBBD Lake ViewNitrate · 0.8 mi
- LAKE VIEW FABRIC CARE INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MID-STATES EQUIPMENT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ROBERT C SCHMIDTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake View'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 View.
Total Sites
159
within ~10 miles of Lake View
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake View
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake View
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake View, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake View — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (76 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 View
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 View average
Your land is one point inside Lake View
Everything above resolves to Lake View 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 View Average
Lake View Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lake View
- ●One soil character for all of Lake View
- ●Frost dates read at Lake View's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake View's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake View
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake View, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake View averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake View average
How we know this about Lake View
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 View’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 View
When does frost risk typically end in Lake View?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake View typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Lake View?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake View typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake View?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake View sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 6, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake View?
The federal record around Lake View is a meaningful one — 159 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake View?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake View's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake View'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 View’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake View's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,341 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake View's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake View's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 20 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake View, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake View's boundary and the 1,341 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake View'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 View's 1,341 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sac 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 Sac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake View's 1,341 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake View you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,341 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 View-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLake View sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.