Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buffalo Lake, 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 Buffalo Lake 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 Buffalo Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Buffalo Lake — the short answer
Buffalo Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 436 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 436 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 Buffalo Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buffalo Lake's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buffalo Lake
Each reading below is measured for Buffalo Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuffalo Lake runs about 184 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
MeasuredBuffalo Lake 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 Buffalo Lake is in
Buffalo Lake sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Buffalo Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Renville County.
What Grows in Buffalo Lake
Every plant below cleared Buffalo Lake's own zone 4b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buffalo Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Buffalo Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buffalo Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- City Of Buffalo Lake (old Garage)Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Lakeside Coop Creamery AssnUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- City Of Buffalo LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Buffalo Lake School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MAJESTIC CABINETSBrownfields · 850 ft
- K&S MILLWRIGHTS LLCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Kottke Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Rudys MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- J & L REPAIR LLCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- KOTTKE TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1500 ft
- BUFFALO LAKE ADVANCED BIOFUELSToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- BUFFALO LAKE ADVANCED BIOFUELSBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buffalo Lake'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 Buffalo Lake.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Buffalo Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buffalo Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buffalo Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buffalo Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buffalo Lake — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (82 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Buffalo Lake
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 Buffalo Lake average
Your land is one point inside Buffalo Lake
Everything above resolves to Buffalo Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 436 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 Buffalo Lake Average
Buffalo Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Buffalo Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Buffalo Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Buffalo Lake's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buffalo Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buffalo Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buffalo Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buffalo Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buffalo Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buffalo Lake average
How we know this about Buffalo Lake
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 Buffalo Lake’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 Buffalo Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Buffalo Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo Lake typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Buffalo Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo Lake typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buffalo Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buffalo Lake sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buffalo Lake?
The federal record around Buffalo Lake shows 150 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Buffalo Lake?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buffalo Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buffalo Lake'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 Buffalo Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Buffalo Lake's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 436 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buffalo Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buffalo Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buffalo Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buffalo Lake's boundary and the 436 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buffalo Lake'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 Buffalo Lake's 436 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Renville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Renville 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 Renville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buffalo Lake's 436 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buffalo Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 436 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Buffalo Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBuffalo Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides