Blaine, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Blaine, 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 Blaine 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 Blaine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blaine — the short answer
Blaine, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Blaine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blaine's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blaine
Each reading below is measured for Blaine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlaine runs about 189 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
MeasuredBlaine 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 Blaine is in
Blaine sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blaine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in Blaine
Every plant below cleared Blaine's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blaine?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Blaine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blaine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GENERAL PATTERNBrownfields · 600 ft
- Northern Asphalt Construction IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- A-1 EXCAVATING & RECYCLING INC - NMBrownfields · 700 ft
- FAMILY DENTAL CARE - BLAINEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 7152Brownfields · 1900 ft
- Holiday Stationstore #417Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Country Collision SpecialistsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Durequip IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Dsk Inc dba Citgo Mart NorthgateUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AmjetUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Peterbilt North - BlaineUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Ten-air Aircraft CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blaine'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 Blaine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blaine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blaine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blaine, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,940 sites within ~10 miles of Blaine. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Blaine
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 Blaine average
Your land is one point inside Blaine
Everything above resolves to Blaine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Blaine Average
Blaine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Blaine
- ●One soil character for all of Blaine
- ●Frost dates read at Blaine's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blaine's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blaine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blaine, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blaine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blaine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blaine average
How we know this about Blaine
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 Blaine’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 Blaine
When does frost risk typically end in Blaine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blaine typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Blaine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blaine typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blaine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blaine sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 8, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blaine?
The federal record around Blaine runs heavier than most — 4,246 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,940), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Blaine?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blaine's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blaine'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 Blaine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blaine's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,059 acres it covers and 4,246 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blaine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blaine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 22 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,246 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blaine, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blaine's boundary and the 21,059 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blaine's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blaine's 21,059 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anoka 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 Anoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blaine's 21,059 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blaine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,059 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Blaine-wide figureread your own land →
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