Aurora, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Aurora, 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 Aurora 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 Aurora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Aurora — the short answer
Aurora, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 116 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~116
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 3b is Aurora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aurora's 116-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Aurora's own 30-year record measures about 116 days between 28°F killing freezes — 36 days shorter than St. Louis County's ~152. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Aurora's ~116-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aurora
Each reading below is measured for Aurora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAurora runs about 116 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAurora sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Aurora is in
Aurora sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Aurora's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Aurora
Every plant below cleared Aurora's own zone 3b and its 116-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aurora?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Aurora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aurora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISD 691 EAST RANGE VOCATIONAL COOP CTRBrownfields · 500 ft
- MESABI EAST PUBLIC SCHOOL - BBrownfields · 500 ft
- Mesabi East School/bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Aurora Lucky Seven General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- RANGE LUMBER CO LLCBrownfields · 700 ft
- Bernies Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AURORA CHIROPRACTICBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Former Union Oil/Hnatko PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NRI ELECTRONICS INC - AURORABrownfields · 2300 ft
- LAKEHEAD CONSTRUCTORS INC - AURORABrownfields · 2400 ft
- Amoco Service Station FormerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- USDA USFS R09 SUPERIOR NATL FOREST LAURENTIANBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aurora'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 Aurora.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aurora, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Aurora. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Aurora
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 Aurora average
Your land is one point inside Aurora
Everything above resolves to Aurora as a whole — and this is a city whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Aurora Average
Aurora Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Aurora
- ●One soil character for all of Aurora
- ●Frost dates read at Aurora's scale: May 27 to Sep 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aurora's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aurora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aurora, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aurora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aurora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aurora average
How we know this about Aurora
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 Aurora’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 Aurora
When does frost risk typically end in Aurora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aurora typically lands around May 27, 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 Jun 17.
When is the first frost in Aurora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aurora typically arrives around Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 6, so the watching starts about Aug 21 — about 116 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aurora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aurora sees about 116 frost-free days — roughly May 27 through Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 17 to Sep 6, about 81 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aurora?
The federal record around Aurora is a meaningful one — 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Aurora?
With about 116 frost-free days between hard freezes, Aurora rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 144 to 172 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 27 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Aurora's scale — its 3b band and its 116-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aurora'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 Aurora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Aurora's own scale — its own ~116-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,366 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aurora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aurora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 27 and Sep 20 and the ~116-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aurora, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aurora's boundary and the 2,366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~116-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aurora's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aurora's 2,366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis 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 St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aurora's 2,366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aurora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Aurora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaAurora sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides