Columbia Heights, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Columbia Heights, 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 Columbia Heights 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 Columbia Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Columbia Heights — the short answer
Columbia Heights, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- 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 5a is Columbia Heights's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Columbia Heights's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Columbia Heights
Each reading below is measured for Columbia Heights itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColumbia Heights runs about 195 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
MeasuredColumbia Heights 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 Columbia Heights is in
Columbia Heights sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Columbia Heights's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in Columbia Heights
Every plant below cleared Columbia Heights's own zone 5a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Columbia Heights?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Columbia Heights
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Columbia Heights. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDAS MUFFLER - COLUMBIA HEIGBrownfields · 200 ft
- VIDAL AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 300 ft
- PRECISION TUNE AUTO CARE OF TCBrownfields · 300 ft
- PROEX # 1523Brownfields · 350 ft
- Auto Max Mufflers Dba Jd EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MATT'S AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE CENTER, LLCBrownfields · 500 ft
- ATLAS AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- MEINEKE CAR CARE CENTER - COLUMBIA HEIGHTSBrownfields · 600 ft
- LEA KEITHBrownfields · 650 ft
- DOLLAR TREE 2526Brownfields · 700 ft
- SARAH'S TOBACCOBrownfields · 700 ft
- GOLD EAGLE DRYCLEANERSBrownfields · 750 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Columbia Heights'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 Columbia Heights.
Total Sites
10,439
within ~10 miles of Columbia Heights
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
55 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Columbia Heights
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Columbia Heights
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Columbia Heights, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 7,492 sites within ~10 miles of Columbia Heights. 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 Columbia Heights
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 Columbia Heights average
Your land is one point inside Columbia Heights
Everything above resolves to Columbia Heights 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 Columbia Heights Average
Columbia Heights Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Columbia Heights
- ●One soil character for all of Columbia Heights
- ●Frost dates read at Columbia Heights's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Columbia Heights's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Columbia Heights
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Columbia Heights, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Columbia Heights averages can't show:
We read public map data around Columbia Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Columbia Heights average
How we know this about Columbia Heights
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 Columbia Heights’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 Columbia Heights
When does frost risk typically end in Columbia Heights?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Columbia Heights typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Columbia Heights?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Columbia Heights typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Columbia Heights?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Columbia Heights sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 11, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Columbia Heights?
The federal record around Columbia Heights runs heavier than most — 10,439 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (7,492), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Columbia Heights?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Columbia Heights's scale — its 5a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Columbia Heights'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 Columbia Heights’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Columbia Heights's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,181 acres it covers and 10,439 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Columbia Heights's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Columbia Heights's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 25 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 10,439 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Columbia Heights, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Columbia Heights's boundary and the 2,181 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Columbia Heights'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 Columbia Heights's 2,181 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anoka 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 Anoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Columbia Heights's 2,181 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Columbia Heights you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,181 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 Columbia Heights-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides