What Cheer, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in What Cheer, 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 What Cheer 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 What Cheer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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What Cheer — the short answer
What Cheer, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 792 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 792 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 What Cheer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against What Cheer's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in What Cheer
Each reading below is measured for What Cheer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhat Cheer runs about 196 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
MeasuredWhat Cheer 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 What Cheer is in
What Cheer sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at What Cheer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Keokuk County.
What Grows in What Cheer
Every plant below cleared What Cheer's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in What Cheer?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 What Cheer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of What Cheer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HEMSLEY CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HEMSLEY CHEV COUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2576Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MELS REPAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FORMER HARTWIG STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 076N13W15BBB 00108 1934What Cheer OldNitrate · 0.6 mi
- BOBS DX SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ZITTERGRUEN FORD NEW HOLLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CLEMENS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- CROPMATE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- CHARLEYS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from What Cheer'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 What Cheer.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of What Cheer
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of What Cheer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of What Cheer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around What Cheer, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of What Cheer. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in What Cheer
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 What Cheer average
Your land is one point inside What Cheer
Everything above resolves to What Cheer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 792 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 What Cheer Average
What Cheer Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across What Cheer
- ●One soil character for all of What Cheer
- ●Frost dates read at What Cheer's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not What Cheer's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in What Cheer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in What Cheer, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that What Cheer averages can't show:
We read public map data around What Cheer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the What Cheer average
How we know this about What Cheer
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 What Cheer’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 What Cheer
When does frost risk typically end in What Cheer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in What Cheer typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in What Cheer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in What Cheer typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in What Cheer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, What Cheer sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in What Cheer?
The federal record around What Cheer shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 What Cheer?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at What Cheer's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of What Cheer'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 What Cheer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at What Cheer's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 792 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- What Cheer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- What Cheer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 24 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near What Cheer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- What Cheer's boundary and the 792 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at What Cheer'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 What Cheer's 792 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Keokuk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Keokuk 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 Keokuk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among What Cheer's 792 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of What Cheer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 792 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 What Cheer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaWhat Cheer sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.