Springbrook, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Springbrook, 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 Springbrook 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 Springbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Springbrook — the short answer
Springbrook, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 387 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 387 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 5a is Springbrook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Springbrook's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Springbrook
Each reading below is measured for Springbrook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpringbrook runs about 190 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
MeasuredSpringbrook sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Springbrook is in
Springbrook sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Springbrook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Springbrook
Every plant below cleared Springbrook's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Springbrook?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Springbrook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Springbrook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLOOS & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ZEIMETS GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 085N04E15DCD 11312 1959Springbrook 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 085N03E22DAA 06141 1953Andrew 1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- ANDREW HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 5.8 mi
- 085N03E22DDB 00980 Andrew 1 OldNitrate · 5.9 mi
- COUNTRY CORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- RONS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- ANDREW COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- STEVE HUDRLIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- 085N03E22D AndrewNitrate · 5.9 mi
- ANDREW PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Springbrook'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 Springbrook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Springbrook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Springbrook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Springbrook, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Springbrook. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Springbrook
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 Springbrook average
Your land is one point inside Springbrook
Everything above resolves to Springbrook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 387 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 Springbrook Average
Springbrook Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Springbrook
- ●One soil character for all of Springbrook
- ●Frost dates read at Springbrook's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Springbrook's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Springbrook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Springbrook, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Springbrook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Springbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Springbrook average
How we know this about Springbrook
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 Springbrook’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 Springbrook
When does frost risk typically end in Springbrook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Springbrook typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Springbrook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Springbrook typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Springbrook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Springbrook sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Springbrook?
The federal record around Springbrook is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Springbrook?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Springbrook's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Springbrook'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 Springbrook’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Springbrook's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 387 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Springbrook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Springbrook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Springbrook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Springbrook's boundary and the 387 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Springbrook'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 Springbrook's 387 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 Springbrook's 387 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Springbrook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 387 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 Springbrook-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSpringbrook sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides