Clara City, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clara City, 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 Clara City 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 Clara City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clara City — the short answer
Clara City, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Clara City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clara City's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clara City
Each reading below is measured for Clara City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClara City runs about 179 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
MeasuredClara City 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 Clara City is in
Clara City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Clara City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chippewa County.
What Grows in Clara City
Every plant below cleared Clara City's own zone 4b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clara City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Clara City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clara City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DONNER SERVICE STATION INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- CLARA CITY CITY OFBrownfields · 550 ft
- ISD 2180 CLARA CITY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ACTUS NUTRITIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CLARA CITY SENIOR LIVINGBrownfields · 2500 ft
- FARMERS COOP OIL CO - CLARA CITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CLARA CITY TRAIN DERAILMENTSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Donners CrossroadsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TEBBEN MANUFACTURING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- TEBBEN MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- GREGG'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 443849Nitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clara City'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 Clara City.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Clara City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clara City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clara City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clara City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clara City — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (42 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 Clara City
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 Clara City average
Your land is one point inside Clara City
Everything above resolves to Clara City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Clara City Average
Clara City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Clara City
- ●One soil character for all of Clara City
- ●Frost dates read at Clara City's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clara City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clara City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clara City, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clara City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clara City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clara City average
How we know this about Clara City
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 Clara City’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 Clara City
When does frost risk typically end in Clara City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clara City 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 Clara City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clara City typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clara City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clara City sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Sep 30, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clara City?
The federal record around Clara City is a meaningful one — 85 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Brownfields 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 Clara City?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clara City's scale — its 4b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clara City'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 Clara City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clara City's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,203 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clara City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clara City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 14 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clara City, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clara City's boundary and the 1,203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clara City'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 Clara City's 1,203 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chippewa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chippewa 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 Chippewa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clara City's 1,203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clara City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,203 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 Clara City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaClara City sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides