Maurice, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Maurice, 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 Maurice 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 Maurice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Maurice — the short answer
Maurice, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 385 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- 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
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 385 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 Maurice's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maurice's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maurice
Each reading below is measured for Maurice itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaurice runs about 186 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
MeasuredMaurice 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 Maurice is in
Maurice sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Maurice's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sioux County.
What Grows in Maurice
Every plant below cleared Maurice's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maurice?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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 Maurice
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maurice. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 094N45W17AACB 1975Maurice 4Nitrate · 750 ft
- KRUIDS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 094N45W17AACA 1915Maurice 1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 094N45W17AAC 00111 1939Maurice 2Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 094N45W17AACD 14860 1962Maurice 3Nitrate · 1300 ft
- PLENDL BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MILLIOR $ SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MAURICE FOOD AND FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STANDARD READY MIX - MAURICEToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- 094N45W08ADDDNitrate · 0.7 mi
- HOOGLAND DAIRYCAFO · 0.8 mi
- VOGEL PAINT & WAX CO.Brownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maurice'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 Maurice.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maurice
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maurice
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maurice, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Maurice — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (84 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Maurice
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 Maurice average
Your land is one point inside Maurice
Everything above resolves to Maurice as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 385 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 Maurice Average
Maurice Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Maurice
- ●One soil character for all of Maurice
- ●Frost dates read at Maurice's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maurice's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maurice
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maurice, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maurice averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maurice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maurice average
How we know this about Maurice
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 Maurice’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 Maurice
When does frost risk typically end in Maurice?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maurice typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Maurice?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maurice 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 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maurice?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maurice sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 6, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maurice?
The federal record around Maurice is a meaningful one — 217 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Maurice?
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 Maurice's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maurice'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 Maurice’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maurice's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 385 acres it covers and 217 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maurice's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maurice's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 20 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 217 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maurice, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maurice's boundary and the 385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maurice'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 Maurice's 385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sioux County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sioux 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 Sioux County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maurice's 385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maurice you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 385 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Maurice-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMaurice sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides