Ogden, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ogden, 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 Ogden 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 Ogden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ogden — the short answer
Ogden, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 876 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 876 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 Ogden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ogden's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ogden
Each reading below is measured for Ogden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOgden runs about 191 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
MeasuredOgden 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 Ogden is in
Ogden sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ogden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Ogden
Every plant below cleared Ogden's own zone 5a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ogden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. 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 Ogden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ogden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OGDEN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- AHRENS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BOONE COUNTY MAINTENANCE SHEDBrownfields · 250 ft
- BOONE COUNTY -OGEN SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- AG SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS COMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- OGDEN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- G & M TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CITY OF OGDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MARVINS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- STUMBO TRANSPORTATION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 084N27W32CBA 00005 1929Ogden 2Nitrate · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ogden'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 Ogden.
Total Sites
148
within ~10 miles of Ogden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ogden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ogden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ogden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 93 sites within ~10 miles of Ogden. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ogden
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 Ogden average
Your land is one point inside Ogden
Everything above resolves to Ogden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 876 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 Ogden Average
Ogden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Ogden
- ●One soil character for all of Ogden
- ●Frost dates read at Ogden's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ogden's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ogden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ogden, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ogden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ogden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ogden average
How we know this about Ogden
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 Ogden’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 Ogden
When does frost risk typically end in Ogden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ogden typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Ogden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ogden 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 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ogden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ogden sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 8, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ogden?
The federal record around Ogden shows 148 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), 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 Ogden?
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 Ogden's scale — its 5a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ogden'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 Ogden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ogden's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 876 acres it covers and 148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ogden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ogden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 22 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ogden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ogden's boundary and the 876 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ogden'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 Ogden's 876 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ogden's 876 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ogden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 876 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 Ogden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaOgden sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides