Wall Lake, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wall Lake, 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 Wall Lake 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 Wall Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wall Lake — the short answer
Wall Lake, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 733 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 733 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 Wall Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wall Lake's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wall Lake
Each reading below is measured for Wall Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWall Lake runs about 187 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
MeasuredWall Lake 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 Wall Lake is in
Wall Lake sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wall Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sac County.
What Grows in Wall Lake
Every plant below cleared Wall Lake's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wall Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Wall Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wall Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALBRECHT OIL & FEED INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WALL LAKE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PITTMAN CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COOK SIDING SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SAC COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PEAVEY GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 086N36W07CDBB 1971Wall Lake (3) 2Nitrate · 2400 ft
- 086N36W07CDBB 1958Wall Lake 2Nitrate · 2500 ft
- 086N36W07CACC 1900Wall Lake (2) 1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- WESTERN IOWA ENERGYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WESTERN IOWA ENERGYToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wall Lake'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 Wall Lake.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Wall Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wall Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wall Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wall Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wall Lake — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wall Lake
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 Wall Lake average
Your land is one point inside Wall Lake
Everything above resolves to Wall Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 733 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 Wall Lake Average
Wall Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wall Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Wall Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Wall Lake's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wall Lake's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wall Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wall Lake, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wall Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wall Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wall Lake average
How we know this about Wall Lake
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 Wall Lake’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 Wall Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Wall Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wall Lake typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Wall Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wall Lake typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wall Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wall Lake sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wall Lake?
The federal record around Wall Lake shows 121 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), 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 Wall Lake?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wall Lake's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wall Lake'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 Wall Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wall Lake's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 733 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wall Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wall Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wall Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wall Lake's boundary and the 733 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wall Lake'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 Wall Lake's 733 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sac 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 Sac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wall Lake's 733 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wall Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 733 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 Wall Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaWall Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.