Eagle Bend, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Eagle Bend, 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 Eagle Bend 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 Eagle Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Eagle Bend — the short answer
Eagle Bend, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 864 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 864 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 Eagle Bend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle Bend's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagle Bend
Each reading below is measured for Eagle Bend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagle Bend runs about 167 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
MeasuredEagle Bend 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 Eagle Bend is in
Eagle Bend sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Eagle Bend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Todd County.
What Grows in Eagle Bend
Every plant below cleared Eagle Bend's own zone 4a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagle Bend?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 12 — 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 Eagle Bend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagle Bend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JERRY'S AUTO BODY & GLASS INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- NORTHLAND SPORTS CENTERBrownfields · 400 ft
- EAGLE BEND METALSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Eagle Bend Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- EAGLE BEND OIL COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- HESS EQUIPMENT INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Shirleys Gas and GroceriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LAKEWOOD CLINIC EAGLE BENDBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 131N35W12CDC 01 Egle Bnd CyNitrate · 2200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 16930Brownfields · 2300 ft
- BRUCES AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 456811Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagle Bend'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 Eagle Bend.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of Eagle Bend
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eagle Bend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagle Bend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagle Bend, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Eagle Bend — CAFO (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Eagle Bend
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 Eagle Bend average
Your land is one point inside Eagle Bend
Everything above resolves to Eagle Bend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 864 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 Eagle Bend Average
Eagle Bend Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Eagle Bend
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle Bend
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle Bend's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle Bend's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagle Bend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle Bend, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle Bend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle Bend average
How we know this about Eagle Bend
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 Eagle Bend’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 Eagle Bend
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle Bend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Bend 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.
When is the first frost in Eagle Bend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Bend typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagle Bend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle Bend sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 28, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle Bend?
The federal record around Eagle Bend shows 113 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), 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 Eagle Bend?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eagle Bend's scale — its 4a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle Bend'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 Eagle Bend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eagle Bend's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 864 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle Bend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle Bend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 12 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagle Bend, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagle Bend's boundary and the 864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eagle Bend'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 Eagle Bend's 864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Todd County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Todd 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 Todd County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagle Bend's 864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagle Bend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 864 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 Eagle Bend-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaEagle Bend sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides