McCausland, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 McCausland, 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 McCausland 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 McCausland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCausland — the short answer
McCausland, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 355 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 355 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 McCausland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCausland's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCausland
Each reading below is measured for McCausland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcCausland runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcCausland 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 McCausland is in
McCausland sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McCausland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in McCausland
Every plant below cleared McCausland's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCausland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near McCausland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCausland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLOOG APPLIANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CORNER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MELVIN BATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- STEVES AUTO SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RIVER VALLEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- S/M SERVICE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DENNIS DIERCKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SCOTT CO SECONDARY ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DIRT TAMER CHASSISBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- J I CASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- 081N05E22DDD 1923Low Moor 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 081N05E22DDD 10742 1959Low Moor 2Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCausland'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 McCausland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McCausland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCausland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCausland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McCausland — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in McCausland
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 McCausland average
Your land is one point inside McCausland
Everything above resolves to McCausland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 355 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 McCausland Average
McCausland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across McCausland
- ●One soil character for all of McCausland
- ●Frost dates read at McCausland's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCausland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCausland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCausland, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCausland averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCausland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCausland average
How we know this about McCausland
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 McCausland’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 McCausland
When does frost risk typically end in McCausland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCausland typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in McCausland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCausland typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCausland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCausland sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 11, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCausland?
The federal record around McCausland is a meaningful one — 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 McCausland?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McCausland's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCausland'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 McCausland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McCausland's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 355 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCausland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCausland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 25 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCausland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCausland's boundary and the 355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McCausland'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 McCausland's 355 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McCausland's 355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCausland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 355 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 McCausland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMcCausland sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides