Brooks, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Brooks, 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 Brooks 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 Brooks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brooks — the short answer
Brooks, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 737 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 737 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 3b is Brooks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooks's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brooks
Each reading below is measured for Brooks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrooks 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
MeasuredBrooks sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Brooks is in
Brooks sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Brooks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Red Lake County.
What Grows in Brooks
Every plant below cleared Brooks's own zone 3b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brooks?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Brooks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brooks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOKS AUTO SALESBrownfields · 300 ft
- PARADIS MAIL SERVICE INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Red Lake County Coop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Brooks C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 150N42W25CCC 01 S BerbertNitrate · 3.4 mi
- BROOKS PUMP STATIONBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- Bobs Napa Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Oklee Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 150N41W27CDA 01Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- ENBRIDGE ENERGY - MP 877 - PLBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- Red Lake County Plummer ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Oklee Red Lake County Coop C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooks'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 Brooks.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brooks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Brooks. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Brooks
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 Brooks average
Your land is one point inside Brooks
Everything above resolves to Brooks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 737 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 Brooks Average
Brooks Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Brooks
- ●One soil character for all of Brooks
- ●Frost dates read at Brooks's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooks's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brooks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooks, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooks average
How we know this about Brooks
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 Brooks’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 Brooks
When does frost risk typically end in Brooks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooks typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Brooks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brooks typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brooks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooks sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 23, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooks?
The federal record around Brooks is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brooks?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brooks's scale — its 3b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooks'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 Brooks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brooks's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 737 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brooks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 7 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brooks, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brooks's boundary and the 737 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brooks's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brooks's 737 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Red Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Red Lake 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 Red Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooks's 737 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brooks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 737 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Brooks-wide figureread your own land →
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