Lytton, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lytton, 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 Lytton 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 Lytton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lytton — the short answer
Lytton, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 147 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 147 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 Lytton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lytton's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lytton
Each reading below is measured for Lytton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLytton runs about 188 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
MeasuredLytton 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 Lytton is in
Lytton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lytton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sac County.
What Grows in Lytton
Every plant below cleared Lytton's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lytton?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Lytton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lytton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESSENTIA PROTEIN SOLUTIONS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 350 ft
- 088N35W24ADAC 1954Lytton (2) 3Nitrate · 350 ft
- AMPC, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 350 ft
- PROLIANT INC - LYTTONBrownfields · 650 ft
- BRUNS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 088N34W19BDAA 02018 1945Lytton 2Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 088N35W24ADDD 00553 1937Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 088N35W24ADAC 1920LyttonNitrate · 1600 ft
- LYTTON COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - LYTTON TOWN BORDER STATIONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- 088N35W24BAA 1920Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 088N35W24DCB 01255 1940Lytton Test 7Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lytton'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 Lytton.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Lytton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lytton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lytton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lytton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lytton — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (50 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lytton
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 Lytton average
Your land is one point inside Lytton
Everything above resolves to Lytton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 147 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 Lytton Average
Lytton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lytton
- ●One soil character for all of Lytton
- ●Frost dates read at Lytton's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lytton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lytton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lytton, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lytton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lytton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lytton average
How we know this about Lytton
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 Lytton’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 Lytton
When does frost risk typically end in Lytton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lytton typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Lytton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lytton typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lytton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lytton sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 6, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lytton?
The federal record around Lytton is a meaningful one — 107 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lytton?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lytton's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lytton'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 Lytton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lytton's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 147 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lytton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lytton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 20 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lytton, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lytton's boundary and the 147 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lytton'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 Lytton's 147 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sac 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 Sac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lytton's 147 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lytton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 147 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 Lytton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLytton sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides