Redfield, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Redfield, 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 Redfield 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 Redfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Redfield — the short answer
Redfield, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 872 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 872 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 Redfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Redfield's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Redfield
Each reading below is measured for Redfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRedfield 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
MeasuredRedfield 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 Redfield is in
Redfield sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Redfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Redfield
Every plant below cleared Redfield'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 Redfield?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Redfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Redfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KETELSEN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DEXFIELD SCHOOLSBrownfields · 600 ft
- ENRON GAS PIPELINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DEXFIELD COMM. SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FARMERS COOP ELEVATOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE#0097Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2553Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GLEN-GERY CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- MOORHEAD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - REDFIELD TBSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MIDLAND INTERNATIONAL TILEWORKSToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Redfield'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 Redfield.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Redfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Redfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Redfield
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 Redfield
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 Redfield average
Your land is one point inside Redfield
Everything above resolves to Redfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 872 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 Redfield Average
Redfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Redfield
- ●One soil character for all of Redfield
- ●Frost dates read at Redfield's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Redfield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Redfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Redfield, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Redfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Redfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Redfield average
How we know this about Redfield
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 Redfield’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 Redfield
When does frost risk typically end in Redfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Redfield typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Redfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Redfield typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Redfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Redfield sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 7, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Redfield?
The federal record around Redfield shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), 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 Redfield?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Redfield's scale — its 5a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Redfield'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 Redfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Redfield's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 872 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Redfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Redfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 21 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Redfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Redfield's boundary and the 872 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 Redfield'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 Redfield's 872 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Redfield's 872 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Redfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 872 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 Redfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRedfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides