Brook Park, 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Brook Park, 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 Brook Park 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 Brook Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brook Park — the short answer
Brook Park, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 636 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 636 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 Brook Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brook Park's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brook Park
Each reading below is measured for Brook Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrook Park runs about 160 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
MeasuredBrook Park 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 Brook Park is in
Brook Park sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brook Park's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pine County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brook Park
Every plant below cleared Brook Park's own zone 4a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brook Park?
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 Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Brook Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brook Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SidetrackedUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DENNIS BARTA PROPERTYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Former Red & White Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 541718Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 187583Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 040N21W17DDC 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 434197Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- Former Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- COUGARVILLE GARAGEBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- 494768Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- B & J ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- 618724Nitrate · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brook Park'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 Brook Park.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Brook Park
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brook Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brook Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brook Park, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Brook Park. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Brook Park
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 Brook Park average
Your land is one point inside Brook Park
Everything above resolves to Brook Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 636 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 Brook Park Average
Brook Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Brook Park
- ●One soil character for all of Brook Park
- ●Frost dates read at Brook Park's scale: May 1 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brook Park's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brook Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brook Park, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brook Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brook Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brook Park average
How we know this about Brook Park
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 Brook Park’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 Brook Park
When does frost risk typically end in Brook Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brook Park typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Brook Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brook Park typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brook Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brook Park sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 24, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brook Park?
The federal record around Brook Park shows 142 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Brook Park?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brook Park's scale — its 4a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brook Park'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 Brook Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brook Park's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 636 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brook Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brook Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 8 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brook Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brook Park's boundary and the 636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brook Park 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 Brook Park's 636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pine 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 Pine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brook Park's 636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brook Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 636 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 Brook Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBrook Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.