Lehigh, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lehigh, 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 Lehigh 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 Lehigh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lehigh — the short answer
Lehigh, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 189 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- 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 Lehigh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lehigh's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lehigh
Each reading below is measured for Lehigh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLehigh runs about 189 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
MeasuredLehigh 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 Lehigh is in
Lehigh sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lehigh's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster County.
What Grows in Lehigh
Every plant below cleared Lehigh's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lehigh?
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 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 21 — 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 Lehigh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lehigh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 087N28W12DACA 1927Lehigh 1Nitrate · 550 ft
- 087N28W12DACA 00489 1937Lehigh 2Nitrate · 600 ft
- WEBSTER COUNTY MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 087N28W12DACD 15859 1963Lehigh 3Nitrate · 800 ft
- LEHIGH FOOD & GAS CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 087N28W13BCC 08629 1957Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 087N27W18CB 1915Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- DOLLIVER STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CENTRAL WEBSTER SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SOUTHEAST WEBSTER-GRAND JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- 086N28W02CDD 03164 1947Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 088N28W31BBA 01834 1943Nitrate · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lehigh'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 Lehigh.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Lehigh
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lehigh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lehigh
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lehigh, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lehigh — Nitrate (56 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lehigh
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 Lehigh average
Your land is one point inside Lehigh
Everything above resolves to Lehigh 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 Lehigh Average
Lehigh Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lehigh
- ●One soil character for all of Lehigh
- ●Frost dates read at Lehigh's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lehigh's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lehigh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lehigh, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lehigh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lehigh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lehigh average
How we know this about Lehigh
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 Lehigh’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 Lehigh
When does frost risk typically end in Lehigh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lehigh 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 Lehigh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lehigh typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lehigh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lehigh sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lehigh?
The federal record around Lehigh shows 129 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Lehigh?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lehigh's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lehigh'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 Lehigh’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lehigh's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,351 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lehigh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lehigh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lehigh, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lehigh's boundary and the 1,351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lehigh'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 Lehigh's 1,351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lehigh's 1,351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lehigh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,351 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 Lehigh-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLehigh sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.