Miles, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Miles, 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 Miles 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 Miles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Miles — the short answer
Miles, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 809 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 809 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 Miles's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Miles's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Miles
Each reading below is measured for Miles itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiles runs about 192 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
MeasuredMiles 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 Miles is in
Miles sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Miles's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Miles
Every plant below cleared Miles's own zone 5a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Miles?
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 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 22 — 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 Miles
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Miles. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FEEDERS SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MILES MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- EAST CENTRAL CSDBrownfields · 850 ft
- EAST CENTRAL COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 084N06E31BBD 07664 1956Miles 1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- AGVANTAGE FS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 084N05E36BDD 00349 1934Miles 2Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- Indian MinesMining · 2.8 mi
- STERLING SHOP SEC RDS DEPT OF JACKSON CYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- PRESTON SHOP SEC RDS DEPT OF JACKSON CTYBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - PRESTON TBSBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- 084N05E28CCDNitrate · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Miles'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 Miles.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Miles
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Miles
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Miles
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Miles, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Miles. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Miles
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 Miles average
Your land is one point inside Miles
Everything above resolves to Miles as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 809 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 Miles Average
Miles Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Miles
- ●One soil character for all of Miles
- ●Frost dates read at Miles's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Miles's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Miles
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Miles, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Miles averages can't show:
We read public map data around Miles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Miles average
How we know this about Miles
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 Miles’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 Miles
When does frost risk typically end in Miles?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Miles 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 Miles?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Miles 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Miles?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Miles sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 8, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Miles?
The federal record around Miles shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Miles?
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 Miles's scale — its 5a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Miles'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 Miles’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Miles's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 809 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Miles's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Miles's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 22 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Miles, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Miles's boundary and the 809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Miles'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 Miles's 809 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Miles's 809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Miles you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 809 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 Miles-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMiles sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides