Cosmos, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cosmos, 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 Cosmos 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 Cosmos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cosmos — the short answer
Cosmos, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 625 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 625 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 Cosmos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cosmos's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cosmos
Each reading below is measured for Cosmos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCosmos runs about 184 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
MeasuredCosmos 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 Cosmos is in
Cosmos sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cosmos's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Meeker County is mostly North Central Hardwood Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cosmos
Every plant below cleared Cosmos's own zone 4b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cosmos?
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 19 — 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 Cosmos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cosmos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COSMIC RECYCLING LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- Cosmos Consolidated School/Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Formerly Bauerly Brothers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Cosmos SunUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Corvaso (meat Processing)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Formerly Small Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Caseys General Store #3301Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Union Coop Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Corvuso (Country Store)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Farmers Coop ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Meeker Cty Hwy Dept Cosmos Shop - SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 478167Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cosmos'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 Cosmos.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Cosmos
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cosmos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cosmos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cosmos, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Cosmos. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cosmos
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 Cosmos average
Your land is one point inside Cosmos
Everything above resolves to Cosmos as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 625 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 Cosmos Average
Cosmos Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cosmos
- ●One soil character for all of Cosmos
- ●Frost dates read at Cosmos's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cosmos's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cosmos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cosmos, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cosmos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cosmos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cosmos average
How we know this about Cosmos
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 Cosmos’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 Cosmos
When does frost risk typically end in Cosmos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cosmos 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 Cosmos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cosmos typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cosmos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cosmos sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 5, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cosmos?
The federal record around Cosmos is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cosmos?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cosmos's scale — its 4b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cosmos'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 Cosmos’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cosmos's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 625 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cosmos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cosmos's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 19 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cosmos, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cosmos's boundary and the 625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cosmos sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cosmos's 625 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Meeker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Meeker 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 Meeker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cosmos's 625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cosmos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 625 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 Cosmos-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaCosmos sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides