Bloomington, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bloomington, 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 Bloomington 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 Bloomington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bloomington — the short answer
Bloomington, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 22K 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 Bloomington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloomington's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloomington
Each reading below is measured for Bloomington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBloomington runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBloomington 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 Bloomington is in
Bloomington sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bloomington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hennepin County.
What Grows in Bloomington
Every plant below cleared Bloomington's own zone 5a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloomington?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Bloomington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloomington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- City Of BloomingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Donaldson Co Inc - MinneapolisUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bloomington Tire Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Town & Country Shopping CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Mega Mall TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Mndot Truck CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bloomington city of James Ave FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Northwestern Financial CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Goodyear Tire & Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bloomington CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Penn BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Master Automotive IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloomington'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 Bloomington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloomington, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 5,434 sites within ~10 miles of Bloomington. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Bloomington
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 Bloomington average
Your land is one point inside Bloomington
Everything above resolves to Bloomington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Bloomington Average
Bloomington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bloomington
- ●One soil character for all of Bloomington
- ●Frost dates read at Bloomington's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloomington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloomington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloomington, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloomington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloomington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloomington average
How we know this about Bloomington
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 Bloomington’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 Bloomington
When does frost risk typically end in Bloomington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomington typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Bloomington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomington typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloomington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloomington sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 13, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloomington?
The federal record around Bloomington runs heavier than most — 7,354 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,434), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bloomington?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bloomington's scale — its 5a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloomington'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 Bloomington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bloomington's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,207 acres it covers and 7,354 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloomington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bloomington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 27 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,354 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloomington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloomington's boundary and the 22,207 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bloomington'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 Bloomington's 22,207 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hennepin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hennepin 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 Hennepin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bloomington's 22,207 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloomington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,207 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bloomington-wide figureread your own land →
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