Little Cedar, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Little Cedar, 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 Little Cedar 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 Little Cedar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Cedar — the short answer
Little Cedar, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 341 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 341 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 Little Cedar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Cedar's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Cedar
Each reading below is measured for Little Cedar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Cedar 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
MeasuredLittle Cedar 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 Little Cedar is in
Little Cedar sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Little Cedar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mitchell County.
What Grows in Little Cedar
Every plant below cleared Little Cedar'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 Little Cedar?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Little Cedar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Cedar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHNSONS GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WHEEL''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- ADAMS MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- K&N MINI MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- CROELL REDI-MIX INC-STACYVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- 100N16W31BDDC 42583 1915Stacyville 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- CURTS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- NORTHERN COUNTRY COOPBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- MEYER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MEYER GARAGE INCBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- REPAIR SHOPBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- KIMT TVUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Cedar'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 Little Cedar.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Little Cedar
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Cedar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Cedar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Cedar, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Little Cedar. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Little Cedar
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 Little Cedar average
Your land is one point inside Little Cedar
Everything above resolves to Little Cedar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 341 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 town 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 Little Cedar Average
Little Cedar Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Little Cedar
- ●One soil character for all of Little Cedar
- ●Frost dates read at Little Cedar's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Cedar's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Cedar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Cedar, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Cedar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Cedar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Cedar average
How we know this about Little Cedar
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Little Cedar’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Little Cedar
When does frost risk typically end in Little Cedar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Cedar typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Little Cedar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Cedar typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Cedar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Cedar sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 3, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Cedar?
The federal record around Little Cedar shows 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Little Cedar?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little Cedar's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Cedar'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 Little Cedar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little Cedar's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 341 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Cedar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Cedar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Cedar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Cedar's boundary and the 341 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 Little Cedar'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 Little Cedar's 341 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mitchell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mitchell 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 Mitchell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little Cedar's 341 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Cedar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 341 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Little Cedar-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLittle Cedar sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides