Chaska, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chaska, 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 Chaska 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 Chaska — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chaska — the short answer
Chaska, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 11K 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Chaska's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chaska's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chaska
Each reading below is measured for Chaska itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChaska runs about 186 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
MeasuredChaska 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 Chaska is in
Chaska sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chaska's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carver County.
What Grows in Chaska
Every plant below cleared Chaska's own zone 4b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chaska?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Chaska
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chaska. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTHWEST CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 900 ft
- TDS CHASKA SOUTHBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SUPERAMERICA 4507Brownfields · 2400 ft
- MINNEAPOLIS HEART INSTITUTEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- ALLINA HEALTH CHASKA CLINICBrownfields · 2600 ft
- RIDGEVIEW TWO TWELVE MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 2600 ft
- CHASKA PLAZA SURGERY CENTER LLC DBA TWO TWELVEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- EDINA EYE PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SAINT FRANCIS HEALTH SERVICESBrownfields · 2600 ft
- OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY WEST CHASKABrownfields · 2600 ft
- OBGYN WESTBrownfields · 2600 ft
- TWIN CITIES ORTHOPEDICSBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chaska'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 Chaska.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chaska
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chaska
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chaska, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,491 sites within ~10 miles of Chaska. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Chaska
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 Chaska average
Your land is one point inside Chaska
Everything above resolves to Chaska as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Chaska Average
Chaska Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Chaska
- ●One soil character for all of Chaska
- ●Frost dates read at Chaska's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chaska's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chaska
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chaska, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chaska averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chaska — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chaska average
How we know this about Chaska
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 Chaska’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 Chaska
When does frost risk typically end in Chaska?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chaska 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 Chaska?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chaska typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chaska?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chaska sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 6, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chaska?
The federal record around Chaska runs heavier than most — 2,050 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,491), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Chaska?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chaska's scale — its 4b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chaska'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 Chaska’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chaska's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,970 acres it covers and 2,050 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chaska's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chaska's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 20 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,050 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chaska, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chaska's boundary and the 10,970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chaska's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chaska's 10,970 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carver County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carver 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 Carver County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chaska's 10,970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chaska you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,970 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Chaska-wide figureread your own land →
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