Danvers, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Danvers, 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 Danvers 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 Danvers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Danvers — the short answer
Danvers, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 445 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 445 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 Danvers's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Danvers's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Danvers
Each reading below is measured for Danvers itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDanvers runs about 170 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
MeasuredDanvers 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 Danvers is in
Danvers sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Danvers's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Swift County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Danvers
Every plant below cleared Danvers's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Danvers?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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's on the federal record near Danvers
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Danvers. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SYNGENTA SEEDS INC - DANVERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ASCHEMAN OILBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- COMMERFORD CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Ascheman Oil & TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Ascheman Oil & Tire (station Abandoned)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GOFF ELECTRIC INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- MICHAEL O'LEARY FARMS INCCAFO · 3.9 mi
- 224021Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 402616Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- 122N41W33CDD 01Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- JIMS DIESEL SERVICE INCBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- CNH INDUSTRIAL AMERICA LLCBrownfields · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Danvers'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 Danvers.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Danvers
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Danvers
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Danvers
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Danvers, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Danvers. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Danvers
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 Danvers average
Your land is one point inside Danvers
Everything above resolves to Danvers as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 445 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 Danvers Average
Danvers Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Danvers
- ●One soil character for all of Danvers
- ●Frost dates read at Danvers's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Danvers's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Danvers
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Danvers, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Danvers averages can't show:
We read public map data around Danvers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Danvers average
How we know this about Danvers
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 Danvers’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 Danvers
When does frost risk typically end in Danvers?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Danvers typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Danvers?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Danvers typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Danvers?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Danvers sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 25, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Danvers?
The federal record around Danvers shows 118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Danvers?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Danvers's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Danvers'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 Danvers’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Danvers's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 445 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Danvers's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Danvers's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 9 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Danvers, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Danvers's boundary and the 445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Danvers sits in the Northern Glaciated 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 Danvers's 445 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Swift County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Swift 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 Swift County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Danvers's 445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Danvers you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 445 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Danvers-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaDanvers sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.