Avoca, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Avoca, 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 Avoca 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 Avoca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Avoca — the short answer
Avoca, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 617 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 617 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 Avoca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avoca's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avoca
Each reading below is measured for Avoca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvoca runs about 177 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
MeasuredAvoca 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 Avoca is in
Avoca sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Avoca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Murray County.
What Grows in Avoca
Every plant below cleared Avoca's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avoca?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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 Avoca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avoca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL BACON RESIDENCEBrownfields · 400 ft
- Word Of Faith Fellowship ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- KRAMER SWINE FINISHINGCAFO · 2.1 mi
- 500895Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Ommen's Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 167163Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 196799Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- Caseys General Store #1687Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- 196767Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 500889Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- GOLDEN LIVING CENTER - SLAYTONBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- ISD 505 FULDA SCHOOLBrownfields · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avoca'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 Avoca.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Avoca
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avoca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avoca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avoca, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Avoca — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Avoca
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 Avoca average
Your land is one point inside Avoca
Everything above resolves to Avoca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 617 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 Avoca Average
Avoca Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Avoca
- ●One soil character for all of Avoca
- ●Frost dates read at Avoca's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avoca's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avoca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avoca, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avoca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avoca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avoca average
How we know this about Avoca
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 Avoca’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 Avoca
When does frost risk typically end in Avoca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avoca typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Avoca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avoca 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 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avoca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avoca sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 30, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avoca?
The federal record around Avoca shows 92 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Avoca?
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 Avoca's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avoca'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 Avoca’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Avoca's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 617 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avoca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avoca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 14 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avoca, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avoca's boundary and the 617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avoca'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 Avoca's 617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Murray County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Murray 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 Murray County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avoca's 617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avoca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 617 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 Avoca-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaAvoca sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.