Macksburg, 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.
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 Macksburg, 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 Macksburg 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 Macksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Macksburg — the short answer
Macksburg, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- 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 5b is Macksburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macksburg's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Macksburg
Each reading below is measured for Macksburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMacksburg runs about 194 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
MeasuredMacksburg 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 Macksburg is in
Macksburg sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Macksburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Macksburg
Every plant below cleared Macksburg's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Macksburg?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Macksburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Macksburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MACKSBURG MINI STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY MACKSBURG WIND FARMBrownfields · 700 ft
- FORMER NELSON''S GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- 073N29W24ADDD 1975Lorimor 2Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- 075N28W16ADDD 00133 1934Pammel State ParkNitrate · 8.1 mi
- KILPATRICK & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- EAST UNION ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- UNITED FARMERS COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.9 mi
Measured from Macksburg'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 Macksburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Macksburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Macksburg
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Macksburg
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 Macksburg average
Your land is one point inside Macksburg
Everything above resolves to Macksburg 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 Macksburg Average
Macksburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Macksburg
- ●One soil character for all of Macksburg
- ●Frost dates read at Macksburg's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macksburg's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Macksburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macksburg, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macksburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macksburg average
How we know this about Macksburg
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 Macksburg’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 Macksburg
When does frost risk typically end in Macksburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macksburg typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Macksburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Macksburg typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Macksburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macksburg sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 8, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macksburg?
The federal record around Macksburg is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Macksburg?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Macksburg's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macksburg'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 Macksburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Macksburg's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,269 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macksburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macksburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 22 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Macksburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Macksburg's boundary and the 1,269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Macksburg'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 Macksburg's 1,269 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Macksburg's 1,269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Macksburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,269 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Macksburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMacksburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.