Goodhue, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goodhue, 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 Goodhue 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 Goodhue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goodhue — the short answer
Goodhue, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 704 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 704 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 Goodhue's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goodhue's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goodhue
Each reading below is measured for Goodhue itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoodhue runs about 168 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
MeasuredGoodhue 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 Goodhue is in
Goodhue sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goodhue's own centroid rather than borrowed from Goodhue County.
What Grows in Goodhue
Every plant below cleared Goodhue's own zone 4b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goodhue?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Goodhue
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goodhue. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Country StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- 111N15W21CCA 01 GoodhueNitrate · 500 ft
- GOODHUE FAMILY DENTAL PRACTICEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ISD 253 GOODHUE PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LodermeiersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Oreilly Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Goodhue County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Roy-n-als ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RICH'S AUTO BODY - GOODHUEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Jerrys GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DANKERS ENTERPRISESToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- 526971Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goodhue'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 Goodhue.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Goodhue
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goodhue
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goodhue
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goodhue, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Goodhue — CAFO (15 sites) and Nitrate (110 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Goodhue
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 Goodhue average
Your land is one point inside Goodhue
Everything above resolves to Goodhue as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 704 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 Goodhue Average
Goodhue Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Goodhue
- ●One soil character for all of Goodhue
- ●Frost dates read at Goodhue's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goodhue's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goodhue
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goodhue, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goodhue averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goodhue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goodhue average
How we know this about Goodhue
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 Goodhue’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 Goodhue
When does frost risk typically end in Goodhue?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goodhue typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Goodhue?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goodhue typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goodhue?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goodhue sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 26, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goodhue?
The federal record around Goodhue is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (110), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Goodhue?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goodhue's scale — its 4b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goodhue'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 Goodhue’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goodhue's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 704 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goodhue's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goodhue's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 10 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goodhue, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goodhue's boundary and the 704 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goodhue's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goodhue's 704 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goodhue County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goodhue 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 Goodhue County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goodhue's 704 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goodhue you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 704 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Goodhue-wide figureread your own land →
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