Beaver Creek, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beaver Creek, 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 Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beaver Creek — the short answer
Beaver Creek, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 339 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 339 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 Beaver Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaver Creek's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beaver Creek
Each reading below is measured for Beaver Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeaver Creek runs about 174 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
MeasuredBeaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek is in
Beaver Creek sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Beaver Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rock County.
What Grows in Beaver Creek
Every plant below cleared Beaver Creek's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beaver Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Beaver Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beaver Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 102N46W28BAA 03 Bvr Creek2Nitrate · 750 ft
- Rauk's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Manley Tire and Oil Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Gordy's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NORTHERN HILLS FARMSCAFO · 3.7 mi
- DAVE'S REPAIR - HILLSBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- DEREK PETERSENCAFO · 3.9 mi
- Hills Beaver Creek Farm ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- TOM BAUSTIAN FARMCAFO · 4.8 mi
- VALLEY OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- GFL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES USA, LLC - VALLEY SPRINGS FACILITY (FORMER TJ'S OIL)Brownfields · 5.1 mi
- PARKER AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaver Creek'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 Beaver Creek.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of Beaver Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beaver Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beaver Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaver Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beaver Creek — CAFO (18 sites) and Nitrate (76 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 Beaver Creek
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 Beaver Creek average
Your land is one point inside Beaver Creek
Everything above resolves to Beaver Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 339 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 Beaver Creek Average
Beaver Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Beaver Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Beaver Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Beaver Creek's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaver Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beaver Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaver Creek, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaver Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaver Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaver Creek average
How we know this about Beaver Creek
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 Beaver Creek’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 Beaver Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Beaver Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver Creek typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Beaver Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver Creek typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beaver Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaver Creek sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 28, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaver Creek?
The federal record around Beaver Creek is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Beaver Creek?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beaver Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaver Creek'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 Beaver Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beaver Creek's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 339 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaver Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beaver Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 12 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beaver Creek, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beaver Creek's boundary and the 339 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beaver Creek'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 Beaver Creek's 339 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rock 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 Rock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaver Creek's 339 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beaver Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 339 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Beaver Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBeaver Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.