Woodbine, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodbine, 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 Woodbine 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 Woodbine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodbine — the short answer
Woodbine, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Woodbine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodbine's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodbine
Each reading below is measured for Woodbine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodbine 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
MeasuredWoodbine 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 Woodbine is in
Woodbine sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Woodbine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harrison County.
What Grows in Woodbine
Every plant below cleared Woodbine'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 Woodbine?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Woodbine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodbine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WOODBINE COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PHYTO-TECHNOLOGIES, INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- TOMMY GATE COMPANYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HARRISON COUNTY CONSERVATION BOARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SECONDARY ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RON''S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MCNEAR OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HAWNS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HARRISON CO RECUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 2665Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JONES AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MATCH IT CAR COBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodbine'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 Woodbine.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Woodbine
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodbine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodbine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodbine, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Woodbine. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Woodbine
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 Woodbine average
Your land is one point inside Woodbine
Everything above resolves to Woodbine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Woodbine Average
Woodbine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Woodbine
- ●One soil character for all of Woodbine
- ●Frost dates read at Woodbine's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodbine's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodbine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodbine, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodbine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodbine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodbine average
How we know this about Woodbine
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 Woodbine’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 Woodbine
When does frost risk typically end in Woodbine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodbine typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Woodbine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodbine typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodbine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodbine sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 3, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodbine?
The federal record around Woodbine shows 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Woodbine?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodbine's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodbine'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 Woodbine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woodbine's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,060 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodbine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodbine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 17 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodbine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodbine's boundary and the 1,060 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 Woodbine'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 Woodbine's 1,060 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harrison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harrison 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 Harrison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodbine's 1,060 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodbine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,060 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 Woodbine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Growing region
Nearby growing guides