Lester, 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lester, 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 Lester 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 Lester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lester — the short answer
Lester, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- 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 Lester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lester's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lester
Each reading below is measured for Lester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLester runs about 174 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
MeasuredLester 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 Lester is in
Lester sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lyon County.
What Grows in Lester
Every plant below cleared Lester's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lester?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Lester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LYON COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- LYON COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FORMER FOLKEN''S TRUCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 100N47W36DDBC 1930Lester 1Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 100N47W36DCBD 1968Lester 2Nitrate · 2400 ft
- KEITHS KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LYON-SIOUX RWS-BIG SIOUXPFAS · 0.6 mi
- GAGE FARM SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NUSTAR PIPELINE OPERATING PARTNERSHIP LP ROCK RAPIDS TERMINALBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TOM BOUWMANToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- TIM FEUCHTToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- GERALD BERGToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lester'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 Lester.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Lester
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lester, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lester — CAFO (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lester
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 Lester average
Your land is one point inside Lester
Everything above resolves to Lester 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 Lester Average
Lester Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lester
- ●One soil character for all of Lester
- ●Frost dates read at Lester's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lester's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lester, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lester average
How we know this about Lester
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 Lester’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 Lester
When does frost risk typically end in Lester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lester typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Lester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lester typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lester sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 29, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lester?
The federal record around Lester shows 116 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), 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 Lester?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lester's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lester'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 Lester’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lester's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,168 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 13 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lester's boundary and the 1,168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lester'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 Lester's 1,168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lester's 1,168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,168 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 Lester-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLester sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides