Grand Meadow, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grand Meadow, 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 Grand Meadow 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 Grand Meadow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grand Meadow — the short answer
Grand Meadow, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 436 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 436 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 Grand Meadow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grand Meadow's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grand Meadow
Each reading below is measured for Grand Meadow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrand Meadow runs about 172 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
MeasuredGrand Meadow 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 Grand Meadow is in
Grand Meadow sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Grand Meadow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mower County.
What Grows in Grand Meadow
Every plant below cleared Grand Meadow's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grand Meadow?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Grand Meadow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grand Meadow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRAND MEADOW CITY OFBrownfields · 650 ft
- Stier Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MEADOW PRINTING SERVICEBrownfields · 900 ft
- Grand Meadow Shop/mower County Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- M & L TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- MIDWEST MACHINERY COMPANY GRAND MEADOWBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 101309Nitrate · 2400 ft
- Glynns Motor Mart IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TOP NOTCH LLCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 591919Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- Smurfys AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Earth & ManorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grand Meadow'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 Grand Meadow.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Grand Meadow
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grand Meadow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grand Meadow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grand Meadow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Grand Meadow — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (66 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 Grand Meadow
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 Grand Meadow average
Your land is one point inside Grand Meadow
Everything above resolves to Grand Meadow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 436 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 Grand Meadow Average
Grand Meadow Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Grand Meadow
- ●One soil character for all of Grand Meadow
- ●Frost dates read at Grand Meadow's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grand Meadow's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grand Meadow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grand Meadow, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grand Meadow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grand Meadow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grand Meadow average
How we know this about Grand Meadow
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 Grand Meadow’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 Grand Meadow
When does frost risk typically end in Grand Meadow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Meadow typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Grand Meadow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Meadow typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grand Meadow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grand Meadow sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 28, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grand Meadow?
The federal record around Grand Meadow shows 137 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Grand Meadow?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grand Meadow's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grand Meadow'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 Grand Meadow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grand Meadow's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 436 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grand Meadow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grand Meadow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 12 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grand Meadow, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grand Meadow's boundary and the 436 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grand Meadow'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 Grand Meadow's 436 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mower County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mower 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 Mower County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grand Meadow's 436 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grand Meadow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 436 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Grand Meadow-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaGrand Meadow sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides