New Sharon, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 New Sharon, 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 Sharon 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 Sharon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Sharon — the short answer
New Sharon, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 601 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 601 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 New Sharon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Sharon's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Sharon
Each reading below is measured for New Sharon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Sharon runs about 199 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 Sharon 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 New Sharon is in
New Sharon sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at New Sharon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mahaska County.
What Grows in New Sharon
Every plant below cleared New Sharon's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Sharon?
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 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 26 — 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 Sharon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Sharon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW SHARON FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ROY VANDERWAALUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WATERHOLE #1Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PHILS AUTO STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CITY OF NEW SHARONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- NORTH MAHASKA SCHOOL DIST.Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- NORTH MAHASKA COMM SCHOOLBrownfields · 500 ft
- PRONTO OF NEW SHARONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2478Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PRAIRIE KNOLLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NEW SHARON TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE #33Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Sharon'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 Sharon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Sharon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Sharon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Sharon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of New Sharon. 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 New Sharon
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 Sharon average
Your land is one point inside New Sharon
Everything above resolves to New Sharon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 601 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 Sharon Average
New Sharon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New Sharon
- ●One soil character for all of New Sharon
- ●Frost dates read at New Sharon's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Sharon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Sharon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Sharon, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Sharon averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Sharon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Sharon average
How we know this about New Sharon
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 Sharon’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 Sharon
When does frost risk typically end in New Sharon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Sharon 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 New Sharon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Sharon typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Sharon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Sharon sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 12, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Sharon?
The federal record around New Sharon is light — 35 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in New Sharon?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Sharon's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Sharon'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 Sharon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Sharon's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 601 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Sharon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Sharon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 26 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Sharon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Sharon's boundary and the 601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Sharon'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 Sharon's 601 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mahaska County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mahaska 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 Mahaska County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Sharon's 601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Sharon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 601 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 Sharon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaNew Sharon sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides