Madrid, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Madrid, 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 Madrid 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 Madrid — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Madrid — the short answer
Madrid, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 783 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 783 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 Madrid's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madrid's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madrid
Each reading below is measured for Madrid itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadrid runs about 193 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
MeasuredMadrid 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 Madrid is in
Madrid sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Madrid's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Madrid
Every plant below cleared Madrid's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madrid?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Madrid
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madrid. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WESTERN PRINTING & LTHOGRAPHING COBrownfields · 400 ft
- SAFLY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- N/AUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CITY OF MADRIDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GIT-N-GO #39Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 0032Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KJ FIELD SERVICESBrownfields · 1600 ft
- WAY MAX COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ITC MIDWEST - MADRID NORTHBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BOONE CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BOONE COUNTY -MADRID SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madrid'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 Madrid.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Madrid
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madrid
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madrid
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 Madrid
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 Madrid average
Your land is one point inside Madrid
Everything above resolves to Madrid as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 783 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 Madrid Average
Madrid Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Madrid
- ●One soil character for all of Madrid
- ●Frost dates read at Madrid's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madrid's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madrid
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madrid, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madrid averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madrid — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madrid average
How we know this about Madrid
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 Madrid’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 Madrid
When does frost risk typically end in Madrid?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madrid typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Madrid?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madrid typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madrid?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madrid sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 9, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madrid?
The federal record around Madrid shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Madrid?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madrid's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madrid'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 Madrid’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Madrid's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 783 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madrid's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madrid's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 23 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madrid, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madrid's boundary and the 783 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Madrid'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 Madrid's 783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madrid's 783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madrid you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 783 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 Madrid-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMadrid sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.