Prairieburg, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Prairieburg, 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 Prairieburg 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 Prairieburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prairieburg — the short answer
Prairieburg, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 287 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 287 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 Prairieburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prairieburg's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prairieburg
Each reading below is measured for Prairieburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrairieburg runs about 180 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
MeasuredPrairieburg 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 Prairieburg is in
Prairieburg sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Prairieburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Linn County.
What Grows in Prairieburg
Every plant below cleared Prairieburg's own zone 5a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prairieburg?
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 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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Prairieburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prairieburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NAGEL GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- LINN-JONES FSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SECONDARY ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SkipsUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DON STICKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LINN-JONES FS SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 085N05W10BDCC 1997NAWQA IADRN-4Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- HOWARD H CHERRY SCOUT RESERVATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- CITY OF CENTRAL CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 3291Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - CENTRAL CITY TBSBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- CENTRAL CITY COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prairieburg'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 Prairieburg.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Prairieburg
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prairieburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prairieburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prairieburg, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Prairieburg. 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 Prairieburg
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 Prairieburg average
Your land is one point inside Prairieburg
Everything above resolves to Prairieburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 287 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 Prairieburg Average
Prairieburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Prairieburg
- ●One soil character for all of Prairieburg
- ●Frost dates read at Prairieburg's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prairieburg's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prairieburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prairieburg, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prairieburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prairieburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prairieburg average
How we know this about Prairieburg
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 Prairieburg’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 Prairieburg
When does frost risk typically end in Prairieburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prairieburg 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 Prairieburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prairieburg typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prairieburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prairieburg sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 1, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prairieburg?
The federal record around Prairieburg is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Prairieburg?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prairieburg's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prairieburg'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 Prairieburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prairieburg's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 287 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prairieburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prairieburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 15 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prairieburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prairieburg's boundary and the 287 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prairieburg'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 Prairieburg's 287 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Linn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Linn 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 Linn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prairieburg's 287 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prairieburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 287 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Prairieburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaPrairieburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides