Cottonwood, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Cottonwood, 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 Cottonwood 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 Cottonwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cottonwood — the short answer
Cottonwood, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 641 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 641 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 Cottonwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cottonwood's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cottonwood
Each reading below is measured for Cottonwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCottonwood 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
MeasuredCottonwood 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 Cottonwood is in
Cottonwood sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cottonwood's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lyon County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cottonwood
Every plant below cleared Cottonwood'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 Cottonwood?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Cottonwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cottonwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 113N40W09ABD 01 CottonwoodNitrate · 700 ft
- COTTONWOOD COOP OIL COBrownfields · 950 ft
- LEGEND CABINETRY LLCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LEGEND CABINETRY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- Caseys General Store #1691Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HYDRO SWING DOORBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NORTH STAR MUTUAL INSURANCE COBrownfields · 2300 ft
- HOUSING & REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 16929Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- LAKEVIEW SCHOOLS ISD 2167Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- 501807Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 113N40W03CCC 01 CottonwoodNitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cottonwood'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 Cottonwood.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Cottonwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cottonwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cottonwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cottonwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cottonwood — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (60 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 Cottonwood
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 Cottonwood average
Your land is one point inside Cottonwood
Everything above resolves to Cottonwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 641 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 Cottonwood Average
Cottonwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cottonwood
- ●One soil character for all of Cottonwood
- ●Frost dates read at Cottonwood's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cottonwood's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cottonwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cottonwood, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cottonwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cottonwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cottonwood average
How we know this about Cottonwood
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 Cottonwood’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 Cottonwood
When does frost risk typically end in Cottonwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cottonwood typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Cottonwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cottonwood typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cottonwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cottonwood sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 29, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cottonwood?
The federal record around Cottonwood shows 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Cottonwood?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cottonwood's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cottonwood'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 Cottonwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cottonwood's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 641 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cottonwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cottonwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 13 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cottonwood, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cottonwood's boundary and the 641 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cottonwood 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 Cottonwood's 641 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cottonwood's 641 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cottonwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 641 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Cottonwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaCottonwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides