Blue Earth, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blue Earth, 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 Blue Earth 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 Blue Earth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blue Earth — the short answer
Blue Earth, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Blue Earth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Earth's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Earth
Each reading below is measured for Blue Earth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Earth runs about 184 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
MeasuredBlue Earth 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 Blue Earth is in
Blue Earth sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Blue Earth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Faribault County.
What Grows in Blue Earth
Every plant below cleared Blue Earth's own zone 5a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Earth?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Blue Earth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Earth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 102N27W17BAC 01 B E CmyNitrate · 550 ft
- Motor PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ISD 2860 BEAS JR HIGH & ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 950 ft
- Minnegasco - Blue Earth PowerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO STORE #6294Brownfields · 1200 ft
- Jubas Super ValueUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- L & M Motors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BLUE EARTH TIRE INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ELECTRIC SERVICEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SENECA FOODS CORP - BLUE EARTHBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Beltline ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- UNITED HOSPITAL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Earth'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 Blue Earth.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Blue Earth
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Earth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Earth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Earth, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Blue Earth. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Blue Earth
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 Blue Earth average
Your land is one point inside Blue Earth
Everything above resolves to Blue Earth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Blue Earth Average
Blue Earth Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Blue Earth
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Earth
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Earth's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Earth's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Earth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Earth, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Earth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Earth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Earth average
How we know this about Blue Earth
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 Blue Earth’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 Blue Earth
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Earth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Earth typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Blue Earth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Earth typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Earth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Earth sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Earth?
The federal record around Blue Earth shows 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Blue Earth?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue Earth's scale — its 5a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Earth'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 Blue Earth’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue Earth's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,124 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Earth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Earth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Earth, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Earth's boundary and the 2,124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blue Earth'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 Blue Earth's 2,124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Faribault County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Faribault 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 Faribault County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Earth's 2,124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Earth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,124 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 Blue Earth-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBlue Earth sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.