Sabula, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sabula, 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 Sabula 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 Sabula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sabula — the short answer
Sabula, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 319 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 319 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 Sabula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sabula's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sabula
Each reading below is measured for Sabula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSabula runs about 197 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
MeasuredSabula 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 Sabula is in
Sabula sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sabula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Sabula
Every plant below cleared Sabula's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sabula?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Sabula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sabula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOB''S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- I & M RAIL LINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- J C ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- K&J HOP N SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 084N07E20BCDD 1895Sabula 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 084N07E20BCDD 1920Sabula 2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- COUNTY SHED #10Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- IOWA DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - SABULABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HOMEPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ISLAND CITY HARBOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS COMPANY - SAVANNA TBSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sabula'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 Sabula.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Sabula
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sabula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sabula
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sabula, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sabula — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sabula
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 Sabula average
Your land is one point inside Sabula
Everything above resolves to Sabula as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 319 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 Sabula Average
Sabula Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sabula
- ●One soil character for all of Sabula
- ●Frost dates read at Sabula's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sabula's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sabula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sabula, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sabula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sabula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sabula average
How we know this about Sabula
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 Sabula’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 Sabula
When does frost risk typically end in Sabula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sabula typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Sabula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sabula typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sabula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sabula sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 9, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sabula?
The federal record around Sabula shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Sabula?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sabula's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sabula'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 Sabula’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sabula's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 319 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sabula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sabula's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 23 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sabula, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sabula's boundary and the 319 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sabula'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 Sabula's 319 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sabula's 319 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sabula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 319 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sabula-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSabula sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides