New Hampton, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in New Hampton, 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 Hampton 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 Hampton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Hampton — the short answer
New Hampton, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- 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 5a is New Hampton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Hampton's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Hampton
Each reading below is measured for New Hampton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Hampton runs about 183 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
MeasuredNew Hampton 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 Hampton is in
New Hampton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at New Hampton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chickasaw County.
What Grows in New Hampton
Every plant below cleared New Hampton's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Hampton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 — 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 New Hampton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Hampton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW HAMPTON MUNICIPAL LIGHT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BLUE LINE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CHICKASAW COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- QUALLEY FEED & GRAIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CITY OF NEW HAMPTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KWIK STAR #714Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- UNITED TELEPHONE OF IOWAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KUM & GO #105Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORMER THRONDSON CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FORMER LIDDLE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LYLES STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COASTAL MART #1810Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Hampton'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 Hampton.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of New Hampton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Hampton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Hampton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Hampton, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of New Hampton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in New Hampton
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 Hampton average
Your land is one point inside New Hampton
Everything above resolves to New Hampton 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 New Hampton Average
New Hampton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across New Hampton
- ●One soil character for all of New Hampton
- ●Frost dates read at New Hampton's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Hampton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Hampton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Hampton, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Hampton averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Hampton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Hampton average
How we know this about New Hampton
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 Hampton’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 Hampton
When does frost risk typically end in New Hampton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Hampton 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 New Hampton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Hampton typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Hampton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Hampton sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 4, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Hampton?
The federal record around New Hampton shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 New Hampton?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Hampton's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Hampton'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 Hampton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Hampton's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,145 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Hampton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Hampton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 18 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Hampton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Hampton's boundary and the 2,145 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Hampton'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 New Hampton's 2,145 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chickasaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Hampton's 2,145 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Hampton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,145 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 New Hampton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaNew Hampton sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides