South English, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 South English, 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 South English 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 South English — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South English — the short answer
South English, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 201 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 201 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 South English's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South English's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South English
Each reading below is measured for South English itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth English runs about 196 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
MeasuredSouth English 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 South English is in
South English sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at South English's own centroid rather than borrowed from Keokuk County.
What Grows in South English
Every plant below cleared South English's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South English?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near South English
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South English. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- G & V TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GARY & NANCYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- C & C AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LAND O LAKES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 077N11W12DADC 02184 1945North English Test 6Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- CLARENCE LEARNEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MARYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2488Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MULTI-COUNTY OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- IDEAL READY MIX CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- LEE ELEVATOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South English'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 South English.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of South English
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South English
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South English
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South English, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of South English. 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 South English
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 South English average
Your land is one point inside South English
Everything above resolves to South English as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 201 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 South English Average
South English Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across South English
- ●One soil character for all of South English
- ●Frost dates read at South English's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South English's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South English
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South English, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South English averages can't show:
We read public map data around South English — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South English average
How we know this about South English
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 South English’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 South English
When does frost risk typically end in South English?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South English typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in South English?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South English 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South English?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South English sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South English?
The federal record around South English shows 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), 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 South English?
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 South English's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South English'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 South English’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South English's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 201 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South English's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South English's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 24 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South English, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South English's boundary and the 201 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South English'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 South English's 201 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Keokuk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Keokuk 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 Keokuk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South English's 201 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South English you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 201 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 South English-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSouth English sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides