Fairhaven, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Fairhaven, 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 Fairhaven 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 Fairhaven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairhaven — the short answer
Fairhaven, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Fairhaven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairhaven's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairhaven
Each reading below is measured for Fairhaven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairhaven 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
MeasuredFairhaven 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 Fairhaven is in
Fairhaven sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairhaven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stearns County.
What Grows in Fairhaven
Every plant below cleared Fairhaven's own zone 4b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairhaven?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Fairhaven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairhaven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chuck Green PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 461833Nitrate · 2300 ft
- Bjs Bait & TackleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Stellas Restaurant Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 55 Auto Sales (frmly Serv Station)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Abandoned LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- D & D Concession-frmrly Fairhaven MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Clearwater Forest Mobile Home ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 526583Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- South Haven TesoroUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 724900Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 735385Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairhaven'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 Fairhaven.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Fairhaven
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairhaven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairhaven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairhaven, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 84 sites within ~10 miles of Fairhaven. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Fairhaven
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 Fairhaven average
Your land is one point inside Fairhaven
Everything above resolves to Fairhaven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 Fairhaven Average
Fairhaven Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Fairhaven
- ●One soil character for all of Fairhaven
- ●Frost dates read at Fairhaven's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairhaven's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairhaven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairhaven, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairhaven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairhaven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairhaven average
How we know this about Fairhaven
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fairhaven’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Fairhaven
When does frost risk typically end in Fairhaven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairhaven typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fairhaven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairhaven typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairhaven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairhaven sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairhaven?
The federal record around Fairhaven is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fairhaven?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairhaven's scale — its 4b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairhaven'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 Fairhaven’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fairhaven's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,221 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairhaven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairhaven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairhaven, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairhaven's boundary and the 1,221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairhaven'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 Fairhaven's 1,221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stearns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stearns 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 Stearns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairhaven's 1,221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairhaven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Fairhaven-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaFairhaven sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides