East Bethel, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 East Bethel, 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 East Bethel 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 East Bethel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Bethel — the short answer
East Bethel, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 29K 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 29K 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 East Bethel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Bethel's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Bethel
Each reading below is measured for East Bethel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Bethel runs about 178 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
MeasuredEast Bethel 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 East Bethel is in
East Bethel sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Bethel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in East Bethel
Every plant below cleared East Bethel's own zone 4b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Bethel?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near East Bethel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Bethel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UnnamedNitrate · 0.8 mi
- WASCHE COMMERCIAL FINISHES INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- EAST BETHEL DEMOLITION LANDFILLSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- Toy Store (Bethel Marine)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOAT WORLDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Lynn's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #22023Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- STATE SPECIAL WASTE FACILITYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- EAST BETHEL DEVELOPMENTBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MILLER INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- TORQUE DIESEL PERFORMANCE INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- AAA AUTO SALVAGE - CEDARBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Bethel'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 East Bethel.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Bethel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Bethel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Bethel, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 276 sites within ~10 miles of East Bethel. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 East Bethel
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 East Bethel average
Your land is one point inside East Bethel
Everything above resolves to East Bethel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 29K 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 East Bethel Average
East Bethel Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across East Bethel
- ●One soil character for all of East Bethel
- ●Frost dates read at East Bethel's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Bethel's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Bethel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Bethel, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Bethel averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Bethel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Bethel average
How we know this about East Bethel
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 East Bethel’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 East Bethel
When does frost risk typically end in East Bethel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Bethel 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 East Bethel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Bethel typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Bethel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Bethel sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 3, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Bethel?
The federal record around East Bethel runs heavier than most — 681 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (313), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 East Bethel?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Bethel's scale — its 4b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Bethel'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 East Bethel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at East Bethel's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 28,531 acres it covers and 681 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Bethel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Bethel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 17 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 681 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Bethel, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Bethel's boundary and the 28,531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Bethel'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 East Bethel's 28,531 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anoka 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 Anoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Bethel's 28,531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Bethel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,531 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 East Bethel-wide figureread your own land →
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