Volga, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Volga, 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 Volga 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 Volga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Volga — the short answer
Volga, Iowa: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 481 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 481 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 Volga's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Volga's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Volga
Each reading below is measured for Volga itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVolga runs about 174 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
MeasuredVolga 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 Volga is in
Volga sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Volga's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clayton County.
What Grows in Volga
Every plant below cleared Volga's own zone 4b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Volga?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Volga
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Volga. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VAYS HOME STYLE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- VOLGA VALLEY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ARLINGTON COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 092N06W03CCDA 08168 1957Volga 1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- L & K OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Volga OccurrenceMining · 1500 ft
- 092N06W10CAB 1942Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION -ARLINGTON IA (QJO) AIR ROUTE SURVEILLANCE RADARBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- 092N05W09BCCNitrate · 4.9 mi
- 093N07W27ACD 1968Wadena 2Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- AYLSWORTH BROS HOUSE MOVERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- THE GAS GAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Volga'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 Volga.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Volga
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Volga
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Volga
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Volga, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Volga. 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 Volga
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 Volga average
Your land is one point inside Volga
Everything above resolves to Volga as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 481 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 Volga Average
Volga Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Volga
- ●One soil character for all of Volga
- ●Frost dates read at Volga's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Volga's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Volga
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Volga, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Volga averages can't show:
We read public map data around Volga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Volga average
How we know this about Volga
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 Volga’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 Volga
When does frost risk typically end in Volga?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Volga typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Volga?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Volga typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Volga?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Volga sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 29, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Volga?
The federal record around Volga shows 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Volga?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Volga's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Volga'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 Volga’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Volga's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 481 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Volga's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Volga's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 13 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Volga, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Volga's boundary and the 481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Volga's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Volga's 481 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 Volga's 481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Volga you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 481 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Volga-wide figureread your own land →
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