Elysian, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Elysian, 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 Elysian 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 Elysian — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elysian — the short answer
Elysian, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 755 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 755 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 Elysian's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elysian's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elysian
Each reading below is measured for Elysian itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElysian runs about 182 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
MeasuredElysian 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 Elysian is in
Elysian sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elysian's own centroid rather than borrowed from Le Sueur County.
What Grows in Elysian
Every plant below cleared Elysian's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elysian?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Elysian
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elysian. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 109N24W35DBD 01 ElysianNitrate · 0.6 mi
- City Of ElysianUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NU-CHEK-PREPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Former Earls Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JAMES BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Lesueur County Nu-check-prepUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Lesueur County Storage GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Caseys General Store #2589Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 108N24W01DBA 01 Mark MillerNitrate · 2.0 mi
- MIKE JEWISON FARM - SEC 12CAFO · 2.6 mi
- 511315Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elysian'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 Elysian.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Elysian
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elysian
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elysian
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elysian, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elysian — CAFO (20 sites) and Nitrate (44 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elysian
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 Elysian average
Your land is one point inside Elysian
Everything above resolves to Elysian as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 755 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 Elysian Average
Elysian Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Elysian
- ●One soil character for all of Elysian
- ●Frost dates read at Elysian's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elysian's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elysian
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elysian, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elysian averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elysian — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elysian average
How we know this about Elysian
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 Elysian’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 Elysian
When does frost risk typically end in Elysian?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elysian typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Elysian?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elysian typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elysian?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elysian sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 5, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elysian?
The federal record around Elysian shows 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Elysian?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elysian's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elysian'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 Elysian’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elysian's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 755 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elysian's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elysian's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 19 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elysian, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elysian's boundary and the 755 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elysian'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 Elysian's 755 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Le Sueur County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elysian's 755 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elysian you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 755 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Elysian-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaElysian sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides