Oakland, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oakland, 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 Oakland 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 Oakland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oakland — the short answer
Oakland, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Oakland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oakland's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oakland
Each reading below is measured for Oakland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOakland runs about 195 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
MeasuredOakland 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 Oakland is in
Oakland sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oakland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pottawattamie County.
What Grows in Oakland
Every plant below cleared Oakland's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oakland?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Oakland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oakland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 075N40W12CBAA 00213 1918Oakland 3Nitrate · 200 ft
- CITY OF OAKLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JEFFERSON OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SCHUEMAN TRANSFERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STANDARD AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- D & J TAYLOR OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HAROLD BLANCHARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STANDARD AUTO SERVICE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- U S WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oakland'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 Oakland.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Oakland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oakland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oakland
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Oakland
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 Oakland average
Your land is one point inside Oakland
Everything above resolves to Oakland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Oakland Average
Oakland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Oakland
- ●One soil character for all of Oakland
- ●Frost dates read at Oakland's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oakland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oakland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oakland, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oakland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oakland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oakland average
How we know this about Oakland
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 Oakland’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 Oakland
When does frost risk typically end in Oakland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oakland 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 Oakland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oakland 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oakland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oakland sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 8, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oakland?
The federal record around Oakland shows 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Nitrate 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 Oakland?
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 Oakland's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oakland'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 Oakland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oakland's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,147 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oakland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oakland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 22 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oakland, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oakland's boundary and the 1,147 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oakland'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 Oakland's 1,147 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pottawattamie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pottawattamie 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 Pottawattamie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oakland's 1,147 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oakland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,147 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Oakland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Growing region