Robins, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Robins, 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 Robins 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 Robins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Robins — the short answer
Robins, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Robins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Robins's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Robins
Each reading below is measured for Robins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRobins runs about 189 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
MeasuredRobins 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 Robins is in
Robins sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Robins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Linn County.
What Grows in Robins
Every plant below cleared Robins's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Robins?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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 Robins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Robins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 084N07W20ABCNitrate · 1700 ft
- 084N07W21BCCANitrate · 2100 ft
- 084N07W16DBBB 25520 1973IGS & USGS 15 RobinsNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 084N07W16DBBB ROBINS 15 USGS TESTNitrate · 0.7 mi
- CLIMATE ENGINEERSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ITC MIDWEST HIAWATHABrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 3564Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- OTTER CREEK COUNTRY STORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TAYLOR INDUSTRIES-LINN CNTYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CITY OF HIAWATHAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Robins'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 Robins.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Robins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Robins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Robins, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 368 sites within ~10 miles of Robins. 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 Robins
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 Robins average
Your land is one point inside Robins
Everything above resolves to Robins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Robins Average
Robins Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Robins
- ●One soil character for all of Robins
- ●Frost dates read at Robins's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Robins's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Robins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Robins, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Robins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Robins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Robins average
How we know this about Robins
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 Robins’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 Robins
When does frost risk typically end in Robins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Robins typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Robins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Robins 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 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Robins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Robins sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Robins?
The federal record around Robins is a meaningful one — 1,128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (464), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Robins?
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 Robins's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Robins'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 Robins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Robins's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,850 acres it covers and 1,128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Robins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Robins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Robins, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Robins's boundary and the 3,850 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Robins'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 Robins's 3,850 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 Robins's 3,850 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Robins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,850 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Robins-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRobins sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides