Meservey, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Meservey, 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 Meservey 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 Meservey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Meservey — the short answer
Meservey, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 957 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 957 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 Meservey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meservey's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meservey
Each reading below is measured for Meservey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMeservey runs about 179 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
MeasuredMeservey 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 Meservey is in
Meservey sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Meservey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cerro Gordo County.
What Grows in Meservey
Every plant below cleared Meservey's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Meservey?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Meservey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meservey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 094N22W32CBAA 09046 1957Meservey 1Nitrate · 250 ft
- FARMERS COOP SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MESERVEY-THORNTON COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UBBEN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- M & D SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 094N22W32CCB 1940Meservey Old 1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- BERT SUNTKEN(DECEASED)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 094N22W27BB 1918Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 094N22W24ACA 07222 1955Thornton 2Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- CENTRAL TELEPHONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 094N22W24DABB 00966 1939Thornton 1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 094N22W24DANitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meservey'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 Meservey.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Meservey
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meservey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meservey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meservey, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Meservey. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Meservey
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 Meservey average
Your land is one point inside Meservey
Everything above resolves to Meservey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 957 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 Meservey Average
Meservey Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Meservey
- ●One soil character for all of Meservey
- ●Frost dates read at Meservey's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meservey's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meservey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meservey, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meservey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meservey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meservey average
How we know this about Meservey
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 Meservey’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 Meservey
When does frost risk typically end in Meservey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meservey typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Meservey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meservey typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meservey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meservey sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Sep 30, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meservey?
The federal record around Meservey shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Nitrate 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 Meservey?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meservey's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meservey'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 Meservey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Meservey's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 957 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meservey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meservey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 14 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meservey, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meservey's boundary and the 957 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Meservey'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 Meservey's 957 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cerro Gordo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cerro Gordo 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 Cerro Gordo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meservey's 957 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meservey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 957 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Meservey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMeservey sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.