Cobden, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cobden, 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 Cobden 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 Cobden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cobden — the short answer
Cobden, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 636 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
- 636 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 Cobden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cobden's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cobden
Each reading below is measured for Cobden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCobden 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
MeasuredCobden 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 Cobden is in
Cobden sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cobden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Cobden
Every plant below cleared Cobden'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 Cobden?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. 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 Cobden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cobden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MNDOT DISTRICT 7 SLEEPY EYE TRUCK STATIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- TOM ANDERSON FARM - SPRINGFIELDCAFO · 2.0 mi
- BRAUN ENTERPRISECAFO · 2.0 mi
- RICHARD TREBESCH FARMCAFO · 2.4 mi
- SCHWARTZ BROS., INC. ? HUIRASCAFO · 3.1 mi
- TRENT MOE FARMCAFO · 3.3 mi
- SCHWARTZ FAMILY, LLC ? COREYCAFO · 3.6 mi
- RICK'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Ladd Demolition LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- MOE KENBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- MATHIOWETZ CONSTRUCTION COBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- RASMUSSEN BODY SHOPBrownfields · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cobden'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 Cobden.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Cobden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cobden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cobden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cobden, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Cobden. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cobden
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 Cobden average
Your land is one point inside Cobden
Everything above resolves to Cobden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 636 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 Cobden Average
Cobden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cobden
- ●One soil character for all of Cobden
- ●Frost dates read at Cobden's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cobden's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cobden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cobden, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cobden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cobden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cobden average
How we know this about Cobden
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 Cobden’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 Cobden
When does frost risk typically end in Cobden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cobden 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 Cobden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cobden 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 Cobden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cobden 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 Cobden?
The federal record around Cobden shows 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Cobden?
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 Cobden's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cobden'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 Cobden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cobden's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 636 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cobden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cobden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 15 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cobden, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cobden's boundary and the 636 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 Cobden'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 Cobden's 636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cobden's 636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cobden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 636 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Cobden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaCobden sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides