Saylorville, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Saylorville, 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 Saylorville 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 Saylorville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Saylorville — the short answer
Saylorville, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Saylorville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saylorville's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saylorville
Each reading below is measured for Saylorville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaylorville runs about 199 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
MeasuredSaylorville 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 Saylorville is in
Saylorville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Saylorville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Saylorville
Every plant below cleared Saylorville's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saylorville?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Saylorville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saylorville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAYLORVILLE AMOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 0004Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HIGHLAND MEMORY GARDENS CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1901Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LIFTRUCK SERVICE CO INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- POLK COUNTY STORAGE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ALLIED BUILDING PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SPIRIT LABEL CORPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SAYLOR CREEK PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RONS ELECTRIC & PLBG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 3075Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saylorville'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 Saylorville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saylorville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saylorville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Saylorville
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 Saylorville average
Your land is one point inside Saylorville
Everything above resolves to Saylorville 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 town 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 Saylorville Average
Saylorville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Saylorville
- ●One soil character for all of Saylorville
- ●Frost dates read at Saylorville's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saylorville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saylorville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saylorville, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saylorville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saylorville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saylorville average
How we know this about Saylorville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Saylorville’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Saylorville
When does frost risk typically end in Saylorville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saylorville typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Saylorville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saylorville typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saylorville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saylorville sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 10, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saylorville?
The federal record around Saylorville runs heavier than most — 1,783 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (995), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Saylorville?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saylorville's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saylorville'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 Saylorville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Saylorville's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,344 acres it covers and 1,783 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saylorville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saylorville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 24 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,783 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saylorville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saylorville's boundary and the 4,344 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saylorville'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 Saylorville's 4,344 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saylorville's 4,344 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saylorville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,344 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 Saylorville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSaylorville sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides