Lone Tree, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lone Tree, 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 Lone Tree 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 Lone Tree — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lone Tree — the short answer
Lone Tree, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 683 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 683 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 Lone Tree's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lone Tree's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lone Tree
Each reading below is measured for Lone Tree itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLone Tree runs about 199 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
MeasuredLone Tree 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 Lone Tree is in
Lone Tree sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lone Tree's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Johnson County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lone Tree
Every plant below cleared Lone Tree's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lone Tree?
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 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 25 — 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 Lone Tree
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lone Tree. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 077N05W09DAA 19442 1967Lone Tree 1Nitrate · 300 ft
- PETSEL''S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- LINAY MARBLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- STAUFFER SEEDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LONE TREE COMM SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LONE TREE JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 450 ft
- 077N05W09DA Lone TreeNitrate · 450 ft
- S & W MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GALLOWAYS SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LONE TREE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 077N05W09DAB 09921 1958Lone Tree 2 OldNitrate · 1000 ft
- 077N05W09DAB 1972Lone Tree 2 WestNitrate · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lone Tree'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 Lone Tree.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lone Tree
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lone Tree
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lone Tree, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Lone Tree. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Lone Tree
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 Lone Tree average
Your land is one point inside Lone Tree
Everything above resolves to Lone Tree as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 683 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 Lone Tree Average
Lone Tree Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lone Tree
- ●One soil character for all of Lone Tree
- ●Frost dates read at Lone Tree's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lone Tree's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lone Tree
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lone Tree, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lone Tree averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lone Tree — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lone Tree average
How we know this about Lone Tree
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 Lone Tree’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 Lone Tree
When does frost risk typically end in Lone Tree?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lone Tree 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 Lone Tree?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lone Tree typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lone Tree?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lone Tree sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lone Tree?
The federal record around Lone Tree shows 83 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Nitrate 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 Lone Tree?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lone Tree's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lone Tree'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 Lone Tree’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lone Tree's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 683 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lone Tree's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lone Tree's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lone Tree, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lone Tree's boundary and the 683 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lone Tree sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lone Tree's 683 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lone Tree's 683 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lone Tree you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 683 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Lone Tree-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLone Tree sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides