Bingham Lake, 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 Bingham Lake, 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 Bingham Lake 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 Bingham Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bingham Lake — the short answer
Bingham Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 510 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
- 510 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 Bingham Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bingham Lake's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bingham Lake
Each reading below is measured for Bingham Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBingham Lake 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
MeasuredBingham Lake 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 Bingham Lake is in
Bingham Lake sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bingham Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cottonwood County.
What Grows in Bingham Lake
Every plant below cleared Bingham Lake'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 Bingham Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Bingham Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bingham Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BINGHAM LAKE TRUCK CENTERBrownfields · 450 ft
- ZBLAST LLCBrownfields · 500 ft
- Cargill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Cargill Grain ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MILLER SELLNER EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- POET BIOPROCESSING-BINGHAM LAKEToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- POET BIOPROCESSING-BINGHAM LAKEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PM WINDOMBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- PM WINDOMToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- PRIME PORK FACILITY EXPANSIONToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- M017 105N36W24ADBC 01 0000537133Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 10337Brownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bingham Lake'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 Bingham Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bingham Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bingham Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bingham Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Bingham Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bingham Lake
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 Bingham Lake average
Your land is one point inside Bingham Lake
Everything above resolves to Bingham Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 510 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 Bingham Lake Average
Bingham Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bingham Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Bingham Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Bingham Lake's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bingham Lake's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bingham Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bingham Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bingham Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bingham Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bingham Lake average
How we know this about Bingham Lake
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 Bingham Lake’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 Bingham Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Bingham Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bingham Lake 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 Bingham Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bingham Lake 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 Bingham Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bingham Lake 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 Bingham Lake?
The federal record around Bingham Lake is a meaningful one — 165 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Bingham Lake?
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 Bingham Lake's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bingham Lake'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 Bingham Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bingham Lake's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 510 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bingham Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bingham Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 14 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bingham Lake, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bingham Lake's boundary and the 510 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 Bingham Lake'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 Bingham Lake's 510 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cottonwood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cottonwood 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 Cottonwood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bingham Lake's 510 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bingham Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 510 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 Bingham Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBingham Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides