Lake of the Woods County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lake of the Woods County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lake of the Woods County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Lake of the Woods County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake of the Woods County — the short answer
Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 830K acres.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 830K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 3b is Lake of the Woods County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake of the Woods County's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lake of the Woods County
Across a year, Lake of the Woods County accumulates about 1,590 growing degree days above 50°F, about 675 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 5 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Lake of the Woods County
Across Lake of the Woods County, the ground is predominantly Histosols, where Rifle, Cathro, and Markey are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a loamy fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Histosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
85%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lake of the Woods County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Lake of the Woods County as very poorly drained — but another 29% drains differently: 19% poorly drained, 5% moderately well drained.
Rifle is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Cathro (10%) and Markey (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Lake of the Woods County
Each reading below is measured for Lake of the Woods County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Lake of the Woods County are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Lake of the Woods County runs about pH 6.0–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLake of the Woods County runs about 151 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
MeasuredLake of the Woods County sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Lake of the Woods County is in
Lake of the Woods County sits in the Northern Minnesota Wetlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Lake of the Woods County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lake of the Woods County's own USDA zone 3b and its own 151-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile.
Is it too late to plant in Lake of the Woods County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Lake of the Woods County
USGS estimates 51,028 lb of Glyphosate on Lake of the Woods County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Bentazone (7,025 lb) and Acetochlor (4,747 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Lake of the Woods County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lake of the Woods County — 71 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Lake of the Woods County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Lake of the Woods County
Closest first, across Lake of the Woods County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lake Of The Woods County ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Dept Of Natural Resources - ForestryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- ROOSEVELT RADIO TOWERBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- Randalls ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- Andys Garage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- Former Stodgel Oil Roosevelt CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- Northern Farmers Coop ExchangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- Cenex Soil Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- Dnr Zippel Bay SpUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- LAKE OF THE WOODS COUNTY RECOBrownfields · 8.0 mi
- AUTO VALUE - BAUDETTEBrownfields · 9.0 mi
- Riverview ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake of the Woods County'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 Lake of the Woods County.
Total Sites
71
across Lake of the Woods County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Lake of the Woods County
Severity Distribution
across Lake of the Woods County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake of the Woods County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 47 sites across Lake of the Woods County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake of the Woods County
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 Lake of the Woods County average
Your land is one point inside Lake of the Woods County
Everything above resolves to Lake of the Woods County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 830K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Lake of the Woods County Average
Lake of the Woods County Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Lake of the Woods County
- ●One soil character for all of Lake of the Woods County
- ●Frost dates read at Lake of the Woods County's scale: May 8 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake of the Woods County's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lake of the Woods County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake of the Woods County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake of the Woods County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake of the Woods County average
How we know this about Lake of the Woods County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Lake of the Woods County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lake of the Woods County
When does frost risk typically end in Lake of the Woods County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake of the Woods County typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
How long is the growing season in Lake of the Woods County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake of the Woods County sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 22, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake of the Woods County?
The federal record around Lake of the Woods County shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Lake of the Woods County's scale — its 3b band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake of the Woods County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Minnesota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Lake of the Woods County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Lake of the Woods County's own scale — its own ~151-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 71 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake of the Woods County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake of the Woods County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lake of the Woods CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 71 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lake of the Woods County's boundary and the 830,497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lake of the Woods County sitting wholly inside the Northern Minnesota WetlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lake of the Woods County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Lake of the Woods County — the ~151 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake of the Woods County's 830,497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 71 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Lake of the Woods Countyread your own land →