Chatfield, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Chatfield, 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 Chatfield 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 Chatfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chatfield — the short answer
Chatfield, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Chatfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chatfield's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chatfield
Each reading below is measured for Chatfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChatfield runs about 176 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
MeasuredChatfield 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 Chatfield is in
Chatfield sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chatfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fillmore County.
What Grows in Chatfield
Every plant below cleared Chatfield's own zone 4b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chatfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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 Chatfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chatfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GUREK INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 105N11W31DCDCB 01 0000226022Nitrate · 1500 ft
- GP TRUCK PAINTINGBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PEOPLE'S ENERGY COOP - CHATFIELDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CHATFIELD BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Chosen Valley Care CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EZ FABRICATING, LLCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- WIT BOYZ INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- STEVEN'S MOTOR COBrownfields · 2300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 20287Brownfields · 2600 ft
- Kwik Trip 608Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Griffin Construction Co ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chatfield'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 Chatfield.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Chatfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chatfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chatfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chatfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chatfield — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (52 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Chatfield
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 Chatfield average
Your land is one point inside Chatfield
Everything above resolves to Chatfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Chatfield Average
Chatfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Chatfield
- ●One soil character for all of Chatfield
- ●Frost dates read at Chatfield's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chatfield's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chatfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chatfield, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chatfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chatfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chatfield average
How we know this about Chatfield
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 Chatfield’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 Chatfield
When does frost risk typically end in Chatfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chatfield typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Chatfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chatfield 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 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chatfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chatfield sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 1, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chatfield?
The federal record around Chatfield shows 107 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Chatfield?
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 Chatfield's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chatfield'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 Chatfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chatfield's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,657 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chatfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chatfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 15 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chatfield, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chatfield's boundary and the 1,657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chatfield's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chatfield's 1,657 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fillmore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fillmore 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 Fillmore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chatfield's 1,657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chatfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,657 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 Chatfield-wide figureread your own land →
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