Luxemburg, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Luxemburg, 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 Luxemburg 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 Luxemburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Luxemburg — the short answer
Luxemburg, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 303 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 Luxemburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luxemburg's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Luxemburg
Each reading below is measured for Luxemburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLuxemburg runs about 178 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
MeasuredLuxemburg 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 Luxemburg is in
Luxemburg sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Luxemburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dubuque County.
What Grows in Luxemburg
Every plant below cleared Luxemburg's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Luxemburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Luxemburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Luxemburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHIELTZ CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- 090N02W15CCNitrate · 450 ft
- RON & AMYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DAVES FEED STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 090N01W19AAAA 00682 1937Holy Cross 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- MAIERS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- ARNOLD MEYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WESTERN DUBUQUE HOLY CROSS ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MID MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- VORWALD EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- THREE RIVERS FS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 089N02W05BCCC 41000 1898New Vienna 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luxemburg'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 Luxemburg.
Total Sites
164
within ~10 miles of Luxemburg
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Luxemburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Luxemburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luxemburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Luxemburg — Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites) and Mining (9 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Luxemburg
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 Luxemburg average
Your land is one point inside Luxemburg
Everything above resolves to Luxemburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Luxemburg Average
Luxemburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Luxemburg
- ●One soil character for all of Luxemburg
- ●Frost dates read at Luxemburg's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luxemburg's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Luxemburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luxemburg, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luxemburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luxemburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luxemburg average
How we know this about Luxemburg
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 Luxemburg’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 Luxemburg
When does frost risk typically end in Luxemburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luxemburg typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Luxemburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Luxemburg typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Luxemburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luxemburg sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 30, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luxemburg?
The federal record around Luxemburg runs heavier than most — 164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Luxemburg?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Luxemburg's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luxemburg'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 Luxemburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Luxemburg's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 164 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Luxemburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Luxemburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 14 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Luxemburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Luxemburg's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Luxemburg's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Luxemburg's 303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dubuque County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dubuque 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 Dubuque County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Luxemburg's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Luxemburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 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 Luxemburg-wide figureread your own land →
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