Babbitt, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Babbitt, 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 Babbitt 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 Babbitt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Babbitt — the short answer
Babbitt, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 68K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 68K 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 Babbitt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Babbitt's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Babbitt
Each reading below is measured for Babbitt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBabbitt runs about 133 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
MeasuredBabbitt 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 Babbitt is in
Babbitt sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Babbitt's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Babbitt
Every plant below cleared Babbitt's own zone 3b and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Babbitt?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Babbitt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Babbitt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dunka RoadMining · 2.0 mi
- Northern Lights LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Babbitt Bus Line IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Birch Lake ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Northshore Mining Co - BabbittUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Amax Mine SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Dunka Mine (area 8)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Whirl Air Recycle Plant(babbit Tire)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Minnamax Cu-Ni ProspectMining · 2.2 mi
- Serpentine DepositMining · 3.4 mi
- NorthMet ProjectMining · 3.5 mi
- BABBITT POLICE DEPTBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Babbitt'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 Babbitt.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Babbitt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Babbitt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Babbitt, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Babbitt — Mining (11 sites) and Nitrate (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Babbitt
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 Babbitt average
Your land is one point inside Babbitt
Everything above resolves to Babbitt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 68K 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 Babbitt Average
Babbitt Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Babbitt
- ●One soil character for all of Babbitt
- ●Frost dates read at Babbitt's scale: May 15 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Babbitt's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Babbitt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Babbitt, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Babbitt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Babbitt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Babbitt average
How we know this about Babbitt
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 Babbitt’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 Babbitt
When does frost risk typically end in Babbitt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Babbitt typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Babbitt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Babbitt typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Babbitt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Babbitt sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 11, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Babbitt?
The federal record around Babbitt is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Mining record about 2.0 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Babbitt?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Babbitt 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Babbitt's scale — its 3b band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Babbitt'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 Babbitt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Babbitt's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 67,809 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Babbitt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Babbitt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Sep 25 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Babbitt, the closest Mining record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Babbitt's boundary and the 67,809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Babbitt'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 Babbitt's 67,809 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 Babbitt's 67,809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Babbitt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 67,809 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 2.0 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 Babbitt-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBabbitt sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides