Beardsley, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Beardsley, 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 Beardsley 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 Beardsley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beardsley — the short answer
Beardsley, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 301 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 301 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 4b is Beardsley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beardsley's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beardsley
Each reading below is measured for Beardsley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeardsley runs about 171 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
MeasuredBeardsley sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Beardsley is in
Beardsley sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Beardsley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Big Stone County.
What Grows in Beardsley
Every plant below cleared Beardsley's own zone 4b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beardsley?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Beardsley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beardsley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEARDSLEY MUNICIPAL WELL AT BEARDSLEY, MNNitrate · 800 ft
- Border States Coop Cardtrol Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Key Trol-tri County CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Formerly Larry's Used CarsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FORMER VISTA WINDOWSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ZYCH FEEDLOT INCCAFO · 2.7 mi
- J HOLKER NEW WELLNitrate · 3.6 mi
- BS-27 124N48W23AAA 03 PumpingWell 0000243633Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- DIEKMANN FARMS INC - SITE 3CAFO · 4.8 mi
- 125N49W34CDD 01 Brns Val.1 0000216870Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 125N49W34CDD 01 Browns Valley 2Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 124N49W04CDC 01 Rog HaanenNitrate · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beardsley'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 Beardsley.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Beardsley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beardsley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beardsley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beardsley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beardsley — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (34 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 Beardsley
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 Beardsley average
Your land is one point inside Beardsley
Everything above resolves to Beardsley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 301 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 Beardsley Average
Beardsley Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Beardsley
- ●One soil character for all of Beardsley
- ●Frost dates read at Beardsley's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beardsley's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beardsley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beardsley, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beardsley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beardsley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beardsley average
How we know this about Beardsley
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 Beardsley’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 Beardsley
When does frost risk typically end in Beardsley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beardsley typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Beardsley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beardsley typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beardsley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beardsley sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 26, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beardsley?
The federal record around Beardsley shows 55 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Nitrate 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 Beardsley?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beardsley's scale — its 4b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beardsley'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 Beardsley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beardsley's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 301 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beardsley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beardsley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 10 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beardsley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beardsley's boundary and the 301 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beardsley's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beardsley's 301 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Big Stone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Big Stone 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 Big Stone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beardsley's 301 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beardsley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 301 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Beardsley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBeardsley sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides