New Albin, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in New Albin, 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 New Albin 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 New Albin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Albin — the short answer
New Albin, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 161 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 New Albin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Albin's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Albin
Each reading below is measured for New Albin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Albin runs about 202 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
MeasuredNew Albin 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 New Albin is in
New Albin sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Albin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allamakee County.
What Grows in New Albin
Every plant below cleared New Albin's own zone 5a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Albin?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near New Albin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Albin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DARLING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- L & M GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 100N04W11BBCA 00211 1925New Albin 1Nitrate · 500 ft
- AL''S AUTO CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ALLAMAKEE COUNTY SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SOO LINE RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PRAIRIE AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Victory StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- S & T SPORT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- BLACKHAWK PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Genoa National Fish HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- GENOA NAT'L FISH HATCHERYBrownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Albin'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 New Albin.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of New Albin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Albin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Albin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Albin, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of New Albin. 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 New Albin
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 New Albin average
Your land is one point inside New Albin
Everything above resolves to New Albin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 New Albin Average
New Albin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across New Albin
- ●One soil character for all of New Albin
- ●Frost dates read at New Albin's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Albin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Albin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Albin, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Albin averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Albin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Albin average
How we know this about New Albin
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 New Albin’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 New Albin
When does frost risk typically end in New Albin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Albin typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in New Albin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Albin typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Albin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Albin sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Albin?
The federal record around New Albin is a meaningful one — 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), 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 New Albin?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Albin's scale — its 5a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Albin'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 New Albin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Albin's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Albin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Albin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Albin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Albin's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Albin's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Albin's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allamakee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allamakee 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 Allamakee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Albin's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Albin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 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 New Albin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Growing region
Nearby growing guides