Brewster, 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.
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 Brewster, 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 Brewster 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 Brewster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brewster — the short answer
Brewster, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 886 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 886 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 Brewster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brewster's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brewster
Each reading below is measured for Brewster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrewster runs about 180 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
MeasuredBrewster 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 Brewster is in
Brewster sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Brewster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nobles County.
What Grows in Brewster
Every plant below cleared Brewster's own zone 5a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brewster?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Brewster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brewster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BREWSTER CITY OFBrownfields · 750 ft
- ISD 513 BREWSTER PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Rays Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AGUILAS CONVENIENCE STOREBrownfields · 1400 ft
- JP RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MINNESOTA SOYBEAN PROCESSORSToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- MINNESOTA SOYBEAN PROCESSORSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 510319Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Leckband Stanley JamesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 510326Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SHOPBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- PARADISE PORKCAFO · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brewster'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 Brewster.
Total Sites
220
within ~10 miles of Brewster
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brewster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brewster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brewster, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Brewster. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Brewster
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 Brewster average
Your land is one point inside Brewster
Everything above resolves to Brewster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 886 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 Brewster Average
Brewster Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Brewster
- ●One soil character for all of Brewster
- ●Frost dates read at Brewster's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brewster's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brewster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brewster, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brewster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brewster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brewster average
How we know this about Brewster
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 Brewster’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 Brewster
When does frost risk typically end in Brewster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brewster typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Brewster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brewster typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brewster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brewster sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 2, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brewster?
The federal record around Brewster is a meaningful one — 220 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (78), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Brewster?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brewster's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brewster'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 Brewster’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brewster's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 886 acres it covers and 220 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brewster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brewster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 16 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 220 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brewster, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brewster's boundary and the 886 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brewster'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 Brewster's 886 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nobles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nobles 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 Nobles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brewster's 886 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brewster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 886 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 Brewster-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBrewster sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides