Strawberry Point, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Strawberry Point, 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 Strawberry Point 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 Strawberry Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Strawberry Point — the short answer
Strawberry Point, Iowa: USDA zone 4b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 4b is Strawberry Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strawberry Point's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strawberry Point
Each reading below is measured for Strawberry Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStrawberry Point runs about 173 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
MeasuredStrawberry Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Strawberry Point is in
Strawberry Point sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Strawberry Point's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clayton County is mostly Driftless Area. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Strawberry Point
Every plant below cleared Strawberry Point's own zone 4b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strawberry Point?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Strawberry Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strawberry Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STARMONT COMM SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- NADINGS SERVICE & SPORTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- WEIG SAND AND GRAVELUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PRONTO MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 091N06W22ACAC 00622 1936Strawberry Point 2Nitrate · 800 ft
- 091N06W22ACAC Strawberry Point 1Nitrate · 900 ft
- HAPPEL EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DONALD BAUMGARTNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DONALD F. BAUMGARTNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SEEDORFF MASONRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- YODER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strawberry Point'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 Strawberry Point.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Strawberry Point
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strawberry Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strawberry Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strawberry Point, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Strawberry Point. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Strawberry Point
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 Strawberry Point average
Your land is one point inside Strawberry Point
Everything above resolves to Strawberry Point 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 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 Strawberry Point Average
Strawberry Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Strawberry Point
- ●One soil character for all of Strawberry Point
- ●Frost dates read at Strawberry Point's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strawberry Point's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strawberry Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strawberry Point, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strawberry Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strawberry Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strawberry Point average
How we know this about Strawberry Point
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 Strawberry Point’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 Strawberry Point
When does frost risk typically end in Strawberry Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strawberry Point typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Strawberry Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strawberry Point typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strawberry Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strawberry Point sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 27, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strawberry Point?
The federal record around Strawberry Point shows 127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), 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 Strawberry Point?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strawberry Point's scale — its 4b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strawberry Point'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 Strawberry Point’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Strawberry Point's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,336 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strawberry Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strawberry Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 11 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strawberry Point, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strawberry Point's boundary and the 1,336 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Strawberry Point sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strawberry Point's 1,336 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clayton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clayton 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 Clayton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strawberry Point's 1,336 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strawberry Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,336 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 Strawberry Point-wide figureread your own land →
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