Olds, 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 Olds, 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 Olds 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 Olds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olds — the short answer
Olds, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 218 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 218 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 Olds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olds's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olds
Each reading below is measured for Olds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlds runs about 203 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
MeasuredOlds 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 Olds is in
Olds sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Olds's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Olds
Every plant below cleared Olds's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olds?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Olds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 073N06W15BBB 18276 1965Olds 1Nitrate · 200 ft
- 073N06W15BBBC 24356 1977Olds 3Nitrate · 250 ft
- SAINT AVENUE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RESCHLY CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- OLDS MUSTANG MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 073N06W09DAANitrate · 1100 ft
- 073N06W16ABB 01392 1936Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 073N06W16AAD 1920Olds Consol School 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 073N06W16DAD 01033 1939Olds Consol School 2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- SWEDISH HERITAGE SOCIETY FOUNDATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 074N06W26ADC 07838 1956Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- CRAWFORDSVILLE FAST BREAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olds'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 Olds.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Olds
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Olds, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Olds. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Olds
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 Olds average
Your land is one point inside Olds
Everything above resolves to Olds as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 218 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 Olds Average
Olds Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Olds
- ●One soil character for all of Olds
- ●Frost dates read at Olds's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olds's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olds, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olds average
How we know this about Olds
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 Olds’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 Olds
When does frost risk typically end in Olds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olds typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Olds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olds typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olds sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 13, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olds?
The federal record around Olds shows 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), 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 Olds?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olds's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olds'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 Olds’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Olds's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 218 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olds's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 27 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olds, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olds's boundary and the 218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olds'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 Olds's 218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olds's 218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 218 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 Olds-wide figureread your own land →