Scott County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Scott County lies within Twin Cities Metro — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Scott County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Scott 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 Scott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scott County — the short answer
Scott County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 228K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 228K 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 Scott County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scott County's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Scott County
Across a year, Scott County accumulates about 2,471 growing degree days above 50°F, about 206 more than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 82 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 Scott County
Across Scott County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Lester, Hayden, and Webster are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
27%
Hydric soils
32%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Scott County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Scott County as well drained — but another 49% drains differently: 14% very poorly drained, 14% poorly drained.
Lester is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Hayden (20%) and Webster (10%).
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 Scott County
Each reading below is measured for Scott 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 Scott County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Scott 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 32% of Scott County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredScott County runs about 185 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
The kind of country Scott County is in
Scott County sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Scott County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Scott County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 185-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 Scott County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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 Scott County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly79 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Scott County
USGS estimates 65,888 lb of Glyphosate on Scott County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (42,880 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (9,233 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 Scott County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Scott County — 1,289 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Scott 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 Scott County
Closest first, across Scott County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LINK EXCAVATING INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BIXBY OIL CO INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- ALLAN BAUERBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- KREUSER VETERINARY CLINICBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- GOLIATH HYDRO VAC INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- KASSBOHRER ALL TERRAIN VEHICLES INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Klingberg Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- KLINGBERG TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SCOTT COUNTY HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE FACILITY (HHW)Brownfields · 2.7 mi
- ART JOHNSON TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Scott County Public Works Salt ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CHAMPION COATINGS, INC.Brownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scott 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 Scott County.
Total Sites
1,289
across Scott County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Scott County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scott County, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 920 sites across Scott County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Scott 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 Scott County average
Your land is one point inside Scott County
Everything above resolves to Scott County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 228K 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 Scott County Average
Scott County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Scott County
- ●One soil character for all of Scott County
- ●Frost dates read at Scott County's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scott County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Scott County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scott County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scott County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scott County average
How we know this about Scott 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 Scott County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Scott County
When does frost risk typically end in Scott County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scott County typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Scott County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scott County sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scott County?
The federal record around Scott County is a meaningful one — 1,289 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (920), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles 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 Scott County's scale — its 4b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scott 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 Scott County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Scott County's own scale — its own ~185-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,289 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scott County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scott County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Scott CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,289 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Scott County's boundary and the 227,892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Scott County sitting wholly inside the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Scott County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Scott 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 Scott County — the ~185 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 Scott County's 227,892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,289 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 Scott Countyread your own land →