Brownton, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Brownton, 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 Brownton 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 Brownton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brownton — the short answer
Brownton, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 257 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 257 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 Brownton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brownton's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brownton
Each reading below is measured for Brownton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrownton runs about 181 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
MeasuredBrownton 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 Brownton is in
Brownton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Brownton's own centroid rather than borrowed from McLeod County.
What Grows in Brownton
Every plant below cleared Brownton's own zone 4b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brownton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. 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 Brownton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brownton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROWNTON BULLETINBrownfields · 300 ft
- BROWNTON MOTORSBrownfields · 600 ft
- McLeod County Highway DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Brownton Coop Ag CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #22090Brownfields · 1200 ft
- Hamre Sales & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BROWNTON WWTPBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Glencoe Co-op AssnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 724406Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 709918Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- BrowntonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DOERING CAROL ABrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brownton'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 Brownton.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of Brownton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brownton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brownton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brownton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Brownton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Brownton
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 Brownton average
Your land is one point inside Brownton
Everything above resolves to Brownton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 257 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 Brownton Average
Brownton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Brownton
- ●One soil character for all of Brownton
- ●Frost dates read at Brownton's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brownton's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brownton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brownton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brownton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brownton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brownton average
How we know this about Brownton
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 Brownton’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 Brownton
When does frost risk typically end in Brownton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brownton typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Brownton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brownton 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brownton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brownton sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brownton?
The federal record around Brownton shows 183 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), 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 Brownton?
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 Brownton's scale — its 4b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brownton'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 Brownton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brownton's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 257 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brownton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brownton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brownton, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brownton's boundary and the 257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brownton'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 Brownton's 257 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McLeod County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McLeod 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 McLeod County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brownton's 257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brownton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 257 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 Brownton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBrownton sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides