Butterfield, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Butterfield, 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 Butterfield 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 Butterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Butterfield — the short answer
Butterfield, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 259 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 259 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 5a is Butterfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Butterfield's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Butterfield
Each reading below is measured for Butterfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredButterfield runs about 180 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
MeasuredButterfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Butterfield is in
Butterfield sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Butterfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Watonwan County.
What Grows in Butterfield
Every plant below cleared Butterfield's own zone 5a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Butterfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 15 — 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 Butterfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Butterfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mikes MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- BUTTERFIELD FOODS COBrownfields · 100 ft
- Thiessen EarlUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Watonwan County Butterfield Outshop - SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ANDY'S AUTO REPAIR & TOWINGBrownfields · 650 ft
- ISD 836 BUTTERFIELD ODIN PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 800 ft
- WILLIAM WANNOW PROPERTYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- BAERG DEVONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- LINSCHEID TRUCK SALESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- DICKENS PIGS INCCAFO · 2.3 mi
- MENKEN FARMSCAFO · 2.3 mi
- BRAATEN FARMS - HOME SITECAFO · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Butterfield'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 Butterfield.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of Butterfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Butterfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Butterfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Butterfield, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Butterfield. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Butterfield
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 Butterfield average
Your land is one point inside Butterfield
Everything above resolves to Butterfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 259 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 Butterfield Average
Butterfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Butterfield
- ●One soil character for all of Butterfield
- ●Frost dates read at Butterfield's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Butterfield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Butterfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Butterfield, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Butterfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Butterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Butterfield average
How we know this about Butterfield
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 Butterfield’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 Butterfield
When does frost risk typically end in Butterfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Butterfield 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 Butterfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Butterfield typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Butterfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Butterfield sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 1, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Butterfield?
The federal record around Butterfield is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Butterfield?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Butterfield's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Butterfield'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 Butterfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Butterfield's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 259 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Butterfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Butterfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 15 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Butterfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Butterfield's boundary and the 259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Butterfield'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 Butterfield's 259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Watonwan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Watonwan 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 Watonwan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Butterfield's 259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Butterfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 259 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 Butterfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaButterfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides