Deer Creek, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deer Creek, 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 Deer Creek 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 Deer Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Creek — the short answer
Deer Creek, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 4a is Deer Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Creek's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Creek
Each reading below is measured for Deer Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Creek runs about 164 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
MeasuredDeer Creek 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 Deer Creek is in
Deer Creek sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deer Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otter Tail County.
What Grows in Deer Creek
Every plant below cleared Deer Creek's own zone 4a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Creek?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Deer Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A&J AUTOBODYBrownfields · 500 ft
- 134N37W26BCC 01Nitrate · 750 ft
- Farmers Cooperative AssnUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- INDUSTRIAL FINISHING SERVICES DEER CREEKBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Deer Creek ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- The StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 133N37W10CDD 01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Former Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Former Toms StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 405357Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- 619561Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 133N37W23CCB 01 0000215885Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Creek'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 Deer Creek.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Deer Creek
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Deer Creek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Deer Creek
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 Deer Creek average
Your land is one point inside Deer Creek
Everything above resolves to Deer Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Deer Creek Average
Deer Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Deer Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Creek's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Creek's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Creek, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Creek average
How we know this about Deer Creek
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 Deer Creek’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 Deer Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Creek typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Deer Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Creek typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Creek sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 26, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Creek?
The federal record around Deer Creek shows 142 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (64), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Deer Creek?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Creek's scale — its 4a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Creek'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 Deer Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deer Creek's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,565 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 10 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Creek, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Creek's boundary and the 2,565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Creek's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Creek's 2,565 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otter Tail County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Creek's 2,565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,565 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Deer Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaDeer Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides