Eagan, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, 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 Eagan, 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 Eagan 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 Eagan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eagan — the short answer
Eagan, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 20K 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 5a is Eagan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagan's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagan
Each reading below is measured for Eagan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagan runs about 198 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
MeasuredEagan sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Eagan is in
Eagan sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Eagan's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dakota County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Eagan
Every plant below cleared Eagan's own zone 5a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Eagan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INNOVATIVE BUILDING CONCEPTSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- EAGAN MUNICIPAL CENTERBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Eagan city ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 207256Nitrate · 2300 ft
- City Of Eagan Fire Administration BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Deerwood Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BLACK HAWK MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PEACEFUL MIND HOMES LLC - EAGANBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PILOT KNOB ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ONE HOUR MARTINIZING - PILOT KNOBBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FLORINE BRENT DDSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- RYAN CHIROPRACTIC CLINICBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagan'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 Eagan.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eagan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagan, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,483 sites within ~10 miles of Eagan. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Eagan
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 Eagan average
Your land is one point inside Eagan
Everything above resolves to Eagan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Eagan Average
Eagan Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Eagan
- ●One soil character for all of Eagan
- ●Frost dates read at Eagan's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagan's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagan, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagan average
How we know this about Eagan
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 Eagan’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 Eagan
When does frost risk typically end in Eagan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagan typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Eagan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagan typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagan sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 11, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagan?
The federal record around Eagan runs heavier than most — 6,143 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,483), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Eagan?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eagan's scale — its 5a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagan'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 Eagan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eagan's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 19,955 acres it covers and 6,143 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 25 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagan, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagan's boundary and the 19,955 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Eagan sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eagan's 19,955 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dakota 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 Dakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagan's 19,955 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,955 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Eagan-wide figureread your own land →