Larrabee, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Larrabee, 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 Larrabee 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 Larrabee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Larrabee — the short answer
Larrabee, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 83 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 83 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 Larrabee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Larrabee's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Larrabee
Each reading below is measured for Larrabee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLarrabee 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
MeasuredLarrabee 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 Larrabee is in
Larrabee sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Larrabee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cherokee County.
What Grows in Larrabee
Every plant below cleared Larrabee'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 Larrabee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Larrabee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Larrabee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A JS CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- 093N40W23BCB 00687 1938Larrabee 1Nitrate · 700 ft
- CHEROKEE COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 093N40W23BCA 12276 1960Larrabee 2Nitrate · 800 ft
- PETERSON AND SONS PLBG & HTGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 092M40W10BDDD 24569 1977IGS & USGS D-5Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- RAY HALDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY - NORTHWEST RESEARCH FARMBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- 094N40W22DCDB 1948Calumet 2Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 094N40W22DCDB 1953CalumetNitrate · 5.4 mi
- 094N40W22DCDB 1951Calumet 3Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- CHEROKEE COUNTY MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Larrabee'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 Larrabee.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Larrabee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Larrabee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Larrabee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Larrabee, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Larrabee. 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 Larrabee
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 Larrabee average
Your land is one point inside Larrabee
Everything above resolves to Larrabee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 83 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 Larrabee Average
Larrabee Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Larrabee
- ●One soil character for all of Larrabee
- ●Frost dates read at Larrabee's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Larrabee's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Larrabee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Larrabee, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Larrabee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Larrabee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Larrabee average
How we know this about Larrabee
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 Larrabee’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 Larrabee
When does frost risk typically end in Larrabee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Larrabee typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Larrabee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Larrabee typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Larrabee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Larrabee sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Larrabee?
The federal record around Larrabee shows 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), 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 Larrabee?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Larrabee's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Larrabee'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 Larrabee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Larrabee's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 83 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Larrabee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Larrabee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Larrabee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Larrabee's boundary and the 83 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 Larrabee'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 Larrabee's 83 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherokee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherokee 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 Cherokee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Larrabee's 83 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Larrabee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 83 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 Larrabee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLarrabee sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides