Van Horne, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Van Horne, 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 Van Horne 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 Van Horne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Van Horne — the short answer
Van Horne, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 595 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 595 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 Van Horne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Van Horne's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Van Horne
Each reading below is measured for Van Horne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVan Horne runs about 189 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
MeasuredVan Horne 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 Van Horne is in
Van Horne sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Van Horne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Van Horne
Every plant below cleared Van Horne's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Van Horne?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. 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 Van Horne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Van Horne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHALLAU MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FARM SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- RDJ FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FISCHER REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CAM CARUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RINDERKNECHT PLUMBING AND HEATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BENTON COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 083N11W14AAB 00031 1916Van Horne RailroadNitrate · 1000 ft
- THE DEPOT VAN HORNE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CITY OF VAN HORNEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 083N11W11DDCB 07384 1956Van Horne 2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 083N11W36CDD 01628 1942Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Van Horne'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 Van Horne.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Van Horne
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Van Horne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Van Horne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Van Horne, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Van Horne. 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 Van Horne
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 Van Horne average
Your land is one point inside Van Horne
Everything above resolves to Van Horne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 595 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 Van Horne Average
Van Horne Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Van Horne
- ●One soil character for all of Van Horne
- ●Frost dates read at Van Horne's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Van Horne's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Van Horne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Van Horne, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Van Horne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Van Horne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Van Horne average
How we know this about Van Horne
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 Van Horne’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 Van Horne
When does frost risk typically end in Van Horne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Van Horne typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Van Horne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Van Horne 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 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Van Horne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Van Horne sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Van Horne?
The federal record around Van Horne shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), 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 Van Horne?
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 Van Horne's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Van Horne'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 Van Horne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Van Horne's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 595 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Van Horne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Van Horne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Van Horne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Van Horne's boundary and the 595 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Van Horne'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 Van Horne's 595 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Van Horne's 595 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Van Horne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 595 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 Van Horne-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaVan Horne sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides