Rowan, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rowan, 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 Rowan 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 Rowan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rowan — the short answer
Rowan, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 333 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 333 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 Rowan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rowan's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rowan
Each reading below is measured for Rowan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRowan runs about 179 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
MeasuredRowan 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 Rowan is in
Rowan sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rowan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wright County.
What Grows in Rowan
Every plant below cleared Rowan's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rowan?
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 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 14 — 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 Rowan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rowan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRYS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WEST BEND ELEVATOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- LONG PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BRUNS MACHINE & WELDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 092N23W34ACC 02929 1947Rowan 1Nitrate · 500 ft
- CARGILL INC ANIMAL NUTRITION DIVToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- WRIGHT COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HILLCREST FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AVERY HEABERLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NEW COOPERATIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AGVANTAGE FS, INC - ROWAN - AABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NEW COOPERATIVE ROWAN MILLToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rowan'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 Rowan.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Rowan
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rowan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rowan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rowan, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 117 sites within ~10 miles of Rowan. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Rowan
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 Rowan average
Your land is one point inside Rowan
Everything above resolves to Rowan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 333 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 Rowan Average
Rowan Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rowan
- ●One soil character for all of Rowan
- ●Frost dates read at Rowan's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rowan's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rowan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rowan, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rowan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rowan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rowan average
How we know this about Rowan
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 Rowan’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 Rowan
When does frost risk typically end in Rowan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rowan 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 Rowan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rowan typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rowan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rowan sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Sep 30, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rowan?
The federal record around Rowan shows 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), 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 Rowan?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rowan's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rowan'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 Rowan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rowan's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 333 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rowan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rowan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 14 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rowan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rowan's boundary and the 333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rowan'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 Rowan's 333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wright County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wright 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 Wright County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rowan's 333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rowan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 333 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 Rowan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRowan sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.