Bock, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — 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, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bock, 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 Bock 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 Bock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bock — the short answer
Bock, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 107 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 107 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 4a is Bock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bock's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bock
Each reading below is measured for Bock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBock runs about 166 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
MeasuredBock sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Bock is in
Bock sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bock's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mille Lacs County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bock
Every plant below cleared Bock's own zone 4a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bock?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Bock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bock Food & LubeUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Direct ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- NEWGARDS BOCK GARAGEBrownfields · 800 ft
- NOBLE METALS LLCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- OSCARSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- KBOB4 Filter Strip Bock ob. well 4Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- KBOB3 Filter Strip Bock ob. well 3Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- KBOB1 Filter Strip Bock ob. well 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- KBOB2 Filter Strip Bock ob. well 2Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- KBOB5 Filter Strip Bock ob. well 5Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- OUVERSON ENG AND MACHINEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- EASTSIDE AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bock'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 Bock.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Bock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bock
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Bock
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 Bock average
Your land is one point inside Bock
Everything above resolves to Bock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 107 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 Bock Average
Bock Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Bock
- ●One soil character for all of Bock
- ●Frost dates read at Bock's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bock's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bock, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bock average
How we know this about Bock
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 Bock’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 Bock
When does frost risk typically end in Bock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bock typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Bock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bock typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bock sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 26, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bock?
The federal record around Bock is a meaningful one — 122 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (53), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bock?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bock's scale — its 4a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bock'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 Bock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bock's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 107 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 10 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bock's boundary and the 107 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bock sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bock's 107 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mille Lacs County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mille Lacs 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 Mille Lacs County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bock's 107 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 107 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBock sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.