Lansing, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lansing, 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 Lansing 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 Lansing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lansing — the short answer
Lansing, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 690 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 690 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 Lansing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lansing's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lansing
Each reading below is measured for Lansing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLansing runs about 198 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
MeasuredLansing 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 Lansing is in
Lansing sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lansing's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allamakee County.
What Grows in Lansing
Every plant below cleared Lansing's own zone 5a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lansing?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Lansing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lansing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 099N03W29DAAB 31734 1877Lansing 3Nitrate · 700 ft
- EASTERN ALLAMAKEE COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GOODELLS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BURLINGTON NORTHERN RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ALLAMAKEE COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LANSING MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- INTERSTATE POWER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- EXPRESSO CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Prospects Near LansingMining · 1300 ft
- GUNDERSEN LUTHERAN LANSING CLINICBrownfields · 1400 ft
- AFAB PETROLEUM EQUIPMENT INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- KWIK STAR #818Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lansing'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 Lansing.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Lansing
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lansing
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lansing
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Lansing
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 Lansing average
Your land is one point inside Lansing
Everything above resolves to Lansing as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 690 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 Lansing Average
Lansing Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lansing
- ●One soil character for all of Lansing
- ●Frost dates read at Lansing's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lansing's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lansing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lansing, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lansing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lansing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lansing average
How we know this about Lansing
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 Lansing’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 Lansing
When does frost risk typically end in Lansing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lansing typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Lansing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lansing typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lansing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lansing sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lansing?
The federal record around Lansing is a meaningful one — 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Lansing?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lansing's scale — its 5a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lansing'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 Lansing’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lansing's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 690 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lansing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lansing's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lansing, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lansing's boundary and the 690 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lansing's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lansing's 690 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allamakee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allamakee 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 Allamakee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lansing's 690 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lansing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 690 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Lansing-wide figureread your own land →
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