Walcott, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Walcott, 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 Walcott 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 Walcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Walcott — the short answer
Walcott, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Walcott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walcott's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walcott
Each reading below is measured for Walcott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWalcott 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
MeasuredWalcott 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 Walcott is in
Walcott sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Walcott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Walcott
Every plant below cleared Walcott'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 Walcott?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Walcott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walcott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WALCOTT COLLISION INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FARMERS ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- REAM SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WALCOTT FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DARE DEVIL''S DELIGHT SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SIEBKE CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CENTRAL PETROLEUM COToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- 078N02E06CDD 1943Walcott 2Nitrate · 2200 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1922Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- RIVER VALLEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TWIN-STATE ENGINEERING & CHEM COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walcott'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 Walcott.
Total Sites
296
within ~10 miles of Walcott
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walcott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walcott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walcott, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Walcott — Toxics Release Inventory (27 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (189 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Walcott
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 Walcott average
Your land is one point inside Walcott
Everything above resolves to Walcott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Walcott Average
Walcott Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Walcott
- ●One soil character for all of Walcott
- ●Frost dates read at Walcott's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walcott's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walcott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walcott, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walcott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walcott average
How we know this about Walcott
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 Walcott’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 Walcott
When does frost risk typically end in Walcott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walcott typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Walcott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walcott typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walcott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walcott sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walcott?
The federal record around Walcott is a meaningful one — 296 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (189), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Walcott?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Walcott's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walcott'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 Walcott’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Walcott's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,991 acres it covers and 296 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walcott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walcott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 296 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walcott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walcott's boundary and the 1,991 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 Walcott'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 Walcott's 1,991 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walcott's 1,991 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walcott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,991 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Walcott-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaWalcott sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides