Meeker County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Meeker County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Meeker 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 Meeker County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Meeker County — the short answer
Meeker County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 389K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 389K 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 4b is Meeker County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meeker County's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Meeker County
Across a year, Meeker County accumulates about 2,317 growing degree days above 50°F, about 52 more than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 51 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 Meeker County
Across Meeker County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Koronis, Swedegrove, and Wadenill are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
24%
Hydric soils
48%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Meeker County
The USDA soil survey maps 31% of Meeker County as poorly drained — but another 64% drains differently: 21% well drained, 14% very poorly drained.
Koronis is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Swedegrove (4%) and Wadenill (4%).
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 Meeker County
Each reading below is measured for Meeker 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 Meeker County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Meeker County runs about pH 6.5–7.0, 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
MeasuredMeeker County 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
MeasuredMeeker County 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 Meeker County is in
Meeker County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Hardwood Forests (65%) and Western Corn Belt Plains (35%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Meeker County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Meeker County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 184-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 Meeker County?
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 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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Meeker County
- monarch butterfly20 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Meeker County
USGS estimates 187,562 lb of Glyphosate on Meeker County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (121,415 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (23,287 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 Meeker County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Meeker County — 243 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Meeker County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Meeker County
Closest first, across Meeker County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SuperAmericaUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ASSOCIATED FINISHING INC - LITCHFIELDBrownfields · 600 ft
- LITCHFIELD BUILDING CENTERBrownfields · 600 ft
- CARRIS HEALTH LITCHFIELD WESTBrownfields · 800 ft
- Knife River Corp N Central LitchfieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FIRST DISTRICT ASSOCToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- FIRST DISTRICT ASSOCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SuperAmerica #4613Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- UNDERGROUND CUSTOMSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CARRIS HEALTH LITCHFIELD EAST CLINICBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MEEKER MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Meeker Memorial HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meeker 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 Meeker County.
Total Sites
243
across Meeker County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Meeker County
Severity Distribution
across Meeker County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meeker County, two things run higher than the national average across Meeker County — CAFO (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Meeker 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 Meeker County average
Your land is one point inside Meeker County
Everything above resolves to Meeker County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 389K 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 Meeker County Average
Meeker County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Meeker County
- ●One soil character for all of Meeker County
- ●Frost dates read at Meeker County's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meeker County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Meeker County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meeker County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meeker County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meeker County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meeker County average
How we know this about Meeker 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 Meeker County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Meeker County
When does frost risk typically end in Meeker County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meeker County 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.
How long is the growing season in Meeker County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meeker County 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 Meeker County?
The federal record around Meeker County is a meaningful one — 243 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Meeker County's scale — its 4b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meeker 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 Meeker County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Meeker County's own scale — its own ~184-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 243 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meeker County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meeker County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Meeker CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 243 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Meeker County's boundary and the 389,099 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Meeker County spans, North Central Hardwood Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Meeker County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Meeker 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 Meeker County — the ~184 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 Meeker County's 389,099 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 243 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 Meeker Countyread your own land →