Norman County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Norman County lies within the Red River Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Norman County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Norman 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 Norman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Norman County — the short answer
Norman County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 559K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 559K 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 4a is Norman County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norman County's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Norman County
Across a year, Norman County accumulates about 2,046 growing degree days above 50°F, about 219 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 26 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 Norman County
Across Norman County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Fargo, Bearden, and Hegne are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a silty clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
29%
Hydric soils
50%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Norman County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Norman County as poorly drained — but another 58% drains differently: 34% somewhat poorly drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Fargo is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Bearden (12%) and Hegne (5%).
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 Norman County
Each reading below is measured for Norman 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 Norman 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 Norman County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredNorman County runs about 165 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
MeasuredNorman County sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Norman County is in
Norman County sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Norman County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Norman County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 165-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 Norman County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Norman County
- monarch butterfly8 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Norman County
USGS estimates 314,213 lb of Glyphosate on Norman County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (77,449 lb) and Metolachlor-s (70,406 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 Norman County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Norman County — 107 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Norman 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 Norman County
Closest first, across Norman County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Community Coops-Flom StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TITAN MACHINERYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- RDO EQUIPMENT CO - ADABrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Waynes Auto ShineUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Johnson Brothers Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Former Anderson Oil Co Gas StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Viking Gas TransmissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Mn Dot Truck StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MNDOT ADA TSBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- NORMAN COUNTY IMPLEMENT INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- Norman Cty Highway Dept AdaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- ADA PUBLIC WORKS DEPTBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norman 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 Norman County.
Total Sites
107
across Norman County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Norman County
Severity Distribution
across Norman County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norman County, two things run higher than the national average across Norman County — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Norman 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 Norman County average
Your land is one point inside Norman County
Everything above resolves to Norman County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 559K 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 Norman County Average
Norman County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Norman County
- ●One soil character for all of Norman County
- ●Frost dates read at Norman County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norman County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Norman County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norman County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norman County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norman County average
How we know this about Norman 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 Norman County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Norman County
When does frost risk typically end in Norman County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norman County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Norman County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norman County sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 26, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norman County?
The federal record around Norman County shows 107 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Norman County's scale — its 4a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norman 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 Norman County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Norman County's own scale — its own ~165-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 107 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norman County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Norman County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Norman CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 107 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Norman County's boundary and the 558,584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Norman County sitting wholly inside the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Norman County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Norman 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 Norman County — the ~165 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 Norman County's 558,584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 107 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 Norman Countyread your own land →