Westwood, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blueberry, 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 Westwood, 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 Westwood 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 Westwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westwood — the short answer
Westwood, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 70 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 70 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 Westwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westwood's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westwood
Each reading below is measured for Westwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestwood runs about 209 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWestwood 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 Westwood is in
Westwood sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Westwood's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Henry County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Westwood
Every plant below cleared Westwood's own zone 5b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westwood?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Westwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 071N07W12DBB 16780 1964Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 071N06W07ACC 06945 1954Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- IDEAL READY MIX - MT. PLEASANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- VEYANCE TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- VEYANCE TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- 071N07W24CACC 00719 1938Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- MOUNT PLEASANT MUNICIPAL UTILITIESPFAS · 2.5 mi
- BLUE BIRD MIDWESTToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- HEARTH AND HOME TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- HEARTH AND HOME TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- HEATILATOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WESLEY BARTON CONST INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westwood'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 Westwood.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Westwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Westwood — Nitrate (56 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Westwood
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 Westwood average
Your land is one point inside Westwood
Everything above resolves to Westwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 70 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 Westwood Average
Westwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Westwood
- ●One soil character for all of Westwood
- ●Frost dates read at Westwood's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westwood's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westwood, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westwood average
How we know this about Westwood
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 Westwood’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 Westwood
When does frost risk typically end in Westwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westwood typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Westwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westwood typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westwood sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westwood?
The federal record around Westwood shows 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Westwood?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Westwood's scale — its 5b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westwood'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 Westwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Westwood's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 70 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westwood, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westwood's boundary and the 70 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Westwood sits in the Central Irregular 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 Westwood's 70 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Westwood's 70 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 70 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Westwood-wide figureread your own land →