Empire, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Empire, 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 Empire 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 Empire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Empire — the short answer
Empire, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- 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 Empire's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Empire's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Empire
Each reading below is measured for Empire itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEmpire runs about 189 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
MeasuredEmpire 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 Empire is in
Empire sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Empire's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dakota County.
What Grows in Empire
Every plant below cleared Empire's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Empire?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Empire
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Empire. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Statistical Products CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Church Of Saint PeterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- INTERSTATE BATTERY TWIN CITIEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- EMPIRE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Met Council - Empire WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- HEIKES BLACK DIRTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 114N19W23ADC DAVID KAMENNitrate · 1.8 mi
- FRMGTN-2D 114N18W 01 0000227972Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- FRMGTN-2S 114N18W 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- AMES SHOPBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- EMPIRE TOWNSHIPBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- SOUTHERN HILLS GOLF CLUBBrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Empire'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 Empire.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Empire
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Empire
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Empire, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 913 sites within ~10 miles of Empire. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Empire
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 Empire average
Your land is one point inside Empire
Everything above resolves to Empire 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 Empire Average
Empire Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Empire
- ●One soil character for all of Empire
- ●Frost dates read at Empire's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Empire's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Empire
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Empire, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Empire averages can't show:
We read public map data around Empire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Empire average
How we know this about Empire
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 Empire’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 Empire
When does frost risk typically end in Empire?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Empire typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Empire?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Empire typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Empire?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Empire sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Empire?
The federal record around Empire runs heavier than most — 1,367 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (913), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Empire?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Empire's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Empire'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 Empire’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Empire's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 19,541 acres it covers and 1,367 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Empire's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Empire's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,367 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Empire, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Empire's boundary and the 19,541 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Empire's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Empire's 19,541 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 Empire's 19,541 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Empire you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,541 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Empire-wide figureread your own land →
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Growing region
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