Browns Valley, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Browns Valley, 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 Browns Valley 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 Browns Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Browns Valley — the short answer
Browns Valley, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 506 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 506 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 4b is Browns Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Browns Valley's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Browns Valley
Each reading below is measured for Browns Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrowns Valley runs about 169 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
MeasuredBrowns Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Browns Valley is in
Browns Valley sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Browns Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Traverse County is mostly Lake Agassiz Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Browns Valley
Every plant below cleared Browns Valley's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Browns Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Browns Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Browns Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROWNS VALLEY WWTPBrownfields · 150 ft
- LEWIS FAMILY DRUG 34Brownfields · 200 ft
- BROWN VALLEY HARDWARE HANKBrownfields · 350 ft
- MIKES ALIGNMENTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- HANSEN SALES & SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BROWNS VALLEY HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #21990Brownfields · 2300 ft
- 125N49W33DCD 01 SchunamanNitrate · 0.5 mi
- 124N49W04CDC 01 Rog HaanenNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 125N49W34CDD 01 Browns Valley 2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 125N49W34CDD 01 Brns Val.1 0000216870Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- ROBERT TOELLE FARMCAFO · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Browns Valley'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 Browns Valley.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Browns Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Browns Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Browns Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Browns Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Browns Valley — Nitrate (108 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Browns Valley
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 Browns Valley average
Your land is one point inside Browns Valley
Everything above resolves to Browns Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 506 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 Browns Valley Average
Browns Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Browns Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Browns Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Browns Valley's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Browns Valley's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Browns Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Browns Valley, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Browns Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Browns Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Browns Valley average
How we know this about Browns Valley
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 Browns Valley’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 Browns Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Browns Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Browns Valley typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Browns Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Browns Valley 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 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Browns Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Browns Valley sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 26, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Browns Valley?
The federal record around Browns Valley shows 132 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (108), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Browns Valley?
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 Browns Valley's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Browns Valley'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 Browns Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Browns Valley's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 506 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Browns Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Browns Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 10 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Browns Valley, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Browns Valley's boundary and the 506 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Browns Valley sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Browns Valley's 506 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Traverse County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Traverse 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 Traverse County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Browns Valley's 506 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Browns Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 506 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 Browns Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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