Lenox, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Lenox, 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 Lenox 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 Lenox — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lenox — the short answer
Lenox, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 5b is Lenox's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lenox's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lenox
Each reading below is measured for Lenox itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLenox runs about 197 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
MeasuredLenox sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Lenox is in
Lenox sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lenox's own centroid rather than borrowed from Taylor County.
What Grows in Lenox
Every plant below cleared Lenox's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lenox?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Lenox
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lenox. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHERIDAN EGG COMPANY INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 400 ft
- LENOX DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 600 ft
- CAIN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BARRANS FARM SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BARKER IMPLEMENT & MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DALTON AG INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TERRA INTERNATIONAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 070N32W08BDDB 00117 1935Lenox 1Nitrate · 1900 ft
- WHITSON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2834Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- REED''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ECOLAB COMPANY/MICHAEL FOODSBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lenox'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 Lenox.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Lenox
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lenox
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lenox
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lenox, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lenox — Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites) and Nitrate (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lenox
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 Lenox average
Your land is one point inside Lenox
Everything above resolves to Lenox 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 Lenox Average
Lenox Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lenox
- ●One soil character for all of Lenox
- ●Frost dates read at Lenox's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lenox's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lenox
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lenox, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lenox averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lenox — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lenox average
How we know this about Lenox
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 Lenox’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 Lenox
When does frost risk typically end in Lenox?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lenox typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Lenox?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lenox typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lenox?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lenox sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 9, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lenox?
The federal record around Lenox is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lenox?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lenox's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lenox'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 Lenox’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lenox's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,225 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lenox's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lenox's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 23 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lenox, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lenox's boundary and the 1,225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lenox'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 Lenox's 1,225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taylor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taylor 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 Taylor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lenox's 1,225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lenox you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,225 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Lenox-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLenox sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides