Audubon, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — 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, cranberry, turkish rocket, 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 Audubon, 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 Audubon 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 Audubon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Audubon — the short answer
Audubon, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 469 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 469 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 4a is Audubon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Audubon's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Audubon
Each reading below is measured for Audubon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAudubon runs about 172 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
MeasuredAudubon sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Audubon is in
Audubon sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Audubon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Becker County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Audubon
Every plant below cleared Audubon's own zone 4a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Audubon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Audubon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Audubon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEAM INDUSTRIES-AUDUBONBrownfields · 900 ft
- TEAM INDUSTRIES-AUDUBONToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- R&R TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- JCS CABINETS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- KELLER DIESEL SERVICEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Ortons Audubon BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Gottenborg GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Audubon HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Art Kohler Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 540046Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 512704Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 471294Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Audubon'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 Audubon.
Total Sites
195
within ~10 miles of Audubon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Audubon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Audubon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Audubon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Audubon — CAFO (4 sites) and Brownfields (101 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Audubon
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 Audubon average
Your land is one point inside Audubon
Everything above resolves to Audubon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 469 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 Audubon Average
Audubon Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Audubon
- ●One soil character for all of Audubon
- ●Frost dates read at Audubon's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Audubon's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Audubon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Audubon, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Audubon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Audubon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Audubon average
How we know this about Audubon
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 Audubon’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 Audubon
When does frost risk typically end in Audubon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Audubon typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Audubon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Audubon typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Audubon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Audubon sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 30, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Audubon?
The federal record around Audubon shows 195 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (101), the nearest Brownfields 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 Audubon?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Audubon's scale — its 4a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Audubon'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 Audubon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Audubon's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 469 acres it covers and 195 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Audubon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Audubon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 14 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Audubon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Audubon's boundary and the 469 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Audubon sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Audubon's 469 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Becker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Becker County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Becker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Audubon's 469 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Audubon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 469 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Audubon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaAudubon sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides