Sperry, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sperry, 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 Sperry 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 Sperry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sperry — the short answer
Sperry, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Sperry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sperry's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sperry
Each reading below is measured for Sperry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSperry runs about 206 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSperry 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 Sperry is in
Sperry sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sperry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Des Moines County.
What Grows in Sperry
Every plant below cleared Sperry's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sperry?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Sperry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sperry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SINCLAIR TRACTORBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DES MOINES COUNTY CONSERVATION BOARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- US GYPSUM COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CLASS TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- US GYPSUM - SPERRY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- 071N03W03BAAD 10612 1959Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- UNITED STATES GYPSUM CO - SPERRYBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- UNITED STATES GYPSUM CO - SPERRYToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- MULLINS AUTO BODY & TRUCKBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- PRECISION RESISTIVE PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- H & L MACK TRUCK SALES CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HAWKEYE PEDERSHAAB CONCRETE TECHNOLOGIES, INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sperry'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 Sperry.
Total Sites
238
within ~10 miles of Sperry
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sperry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sperry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sperry, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sperry — Nitrate (102 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Sperry
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 Sperry average
Your land is one point inside Sperry
Everything above resolves to Sperry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sperry Average
Sperry Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sperry
- ●One soil character for all of Sperry
- ●Frost dates read at Sperry's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sperry's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sperry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sperry, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sperry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sperry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sperry average
How we know this about Sperry
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 Sperry’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 Sperry
When does frost risk typically end in Sperry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sperry typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Sperry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sperry typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sperry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sperry sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 16, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sperry?
The federal record around Sperry is a meaningful one — 238 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Sperry?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sperry's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sperry'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 Sperry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sperry's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,432 acres it covers and 238 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sperry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sperry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 30 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 238 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sperry, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sperry's boundary and the 1,432 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sperry'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 Sperry's 1,432 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Des Moines County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Des Moines 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 Des Moines County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sperry's 1,432 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sperry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,432 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Sperry-wide figureread your own land →