Mount Ayr, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Mount Ayr, 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 Mount Ayr 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 Mount Ayr — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Ayr — the short answer
Mount Ayr, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Mount Ayr's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Ayr's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Ayr
Each reading below is measured for Mount Ayr itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Ayr runs about 196 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
MeasuredMount Ayr 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 Mount Ayr is in
Mount Ayr sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Mount Ayr's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ringgold County.
What Grows in Mount Ayr
Every plant below cleared Mount Ayr's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Ayr?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Mount Ayr
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Ayr. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEPT OF NATURAL RESOURCESUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- IOWA DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RINGGOLD COUNTY-MT AYR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DUGAN''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LYNN''S SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SMITH OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CASE POWER & EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- UNITED FARMERS COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ITC TRANSMISSION - MIDWEST MOUNT AYRBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 25Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SICKELS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CENTRAL IOWA READY MIX MT. AYRToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Ayr'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 Mount Ayr.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Mount Ayr
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Ayr
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Ayr
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Ayr, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Mount Ayr. 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 Mount Ayr
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 Mount Ayr average
Your land is one point inside Mount Ayr
Everything above resolves to Mount Ayr as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Mount Ayr Average
Mount Ayr Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Mount Ayr
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Ayr
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Ayr's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Ayr's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Ayr
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Ayr, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Ayr averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Ayr — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Ayr average
How we know this about Mount Ayr
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 Mount Ayr’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 Mount Ayr
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Ayr?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Ayr typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Mount Ayr?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Ayr 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Ayr?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Ayr sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Ayr?
The federal record around Mount Ayr shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), 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 Mount Ayr?
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 Mount Ayr's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Ayr'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 Mount Ayr’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Ayr's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,728 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Ayr's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Ayr's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Ayr, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Ayr's boundary and the 1,728 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Ayr's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Ayr's 1,728 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ringgold County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ringgold 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 Ringgold County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Ayr's 1,728 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Ayr you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,728 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 Mount Ayr-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMount Ayr sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.