Spring Hill, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Hill, 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 Spring Hill 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 Spring Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Hill — the short answer
Spring Hill, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 80 acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 80 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 Spring Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Hill's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Hill
Each reading below is measured for Spring Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Hill 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
MeasuredSpring Hill 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 Spring Hill is in
Spring Hill sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Spring Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Spring Hill
Every plant below cleared Spring Hill'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 Spring Hill?
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 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 Spring Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDIANOLA RADIO RELAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 076N24W22ADD 1958Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- MICHAEL FOODS NORWALKToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- MICHAEL FOODS NORWALKBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- MICHAEL FOODS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- 076N24W23CBBNitrate · 4.0 mi
- CITY OF INDIANOLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- NORWALK WATER SUPPLYPFAS · 4.1 mi
- VETTER EQUIPMENT COMPANYBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- NORWALK COMMUNITY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- NORWALK COMMUNITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- NORWALK CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Hill'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 Spring Hill.
Total Sites
373
within ~10 miles of Spring Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Hill
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Spring Hill
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 Spring Hill average
Your land is one point inside Spring Hill
Everything above resolves to Spring Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 80 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 Spring Hill Average
Spring Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Spring Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Hill's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Hill's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Hill, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Hill average
How we know this about Spring Hill
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 Spring Hill’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 Spring Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Hill 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 Spring Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Hill 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 Spring Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Hill 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 Spring Hill?
The federal record around Spring Hill is a meaningful one — 373 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (201), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.6 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 Spring Hill?
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 Spring Hill's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Hill'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 Spring Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Hill's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 80 acres it covers and 373 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 24 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 373 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Hill's boundary and the 80 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 Spring Hill'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 Spring Hill's 80 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Hill's 80 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 80 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.6 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 Spring Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSpring Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides