Grand Rapids, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Grand Rapids, 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 Rapids 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 Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grand Rapids — the short answer
Grand Rapids, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 4a is Grand Rapids's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grand Rapids's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grand Rapids
Each reading below is measured for Grand Rapids itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrand Rapids runs about 159 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 Rapids sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Rapids is in
Grand Rapids sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Grand Rapids's own centroid rather than borrowed from Itasca County.
What Grows in Grand Rapids
Every plant below cleared Grand Rapids's own zone 4a and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grand Rapids?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Grand Rapids
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grand Rapids. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURLINGTON NORTHERN RR - GRAND RAPIDSBrownfields · 250 ft
- JACK'S AUTO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 800 ft
- Jerry's Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Jacks Auto Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- M & H Gas #20Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NORTHERN LAKES DENTALBrownfields · 1100 ft
- HELLER ROD DDSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Norby/kragnes PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Kremers George F Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Vanity CleanersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BREWED AWAKENINGSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- VANITY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grand Rapids'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 Rapids.
Total Sites
313
within ~10 miles of Grand Rapids
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grand Rapids
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grand Rapids
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Grand Rapids
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 Rapids average
Your land is one point inside Grand Rapids
Everything above resolves to Grand Rapids as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Rapids Average
Grand Rapids Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Grand Rapids
- ●One soil character for all of Grand Rapids
- ●Frost dates read at Grand Rapids's scale: May 3 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grand Rapids's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grand Rapids
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grand Rapids, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grand Rapids averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grand Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grand Rapids average
How we know this about Grand Rapids
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 Rapids’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 Rapids
When does frost risk typically end in Grand Rapids?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Rapids typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Grand Rapids?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Rapids typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grand Rapids?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grand Rapids sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 25, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grand Rapids?
The federal record around Grand Rapids is a meaningful one — 313 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (147), the nearest Brownfields 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 Grand Rapids?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grand Rapids's scale — its 4a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grand Rapids'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 Rapids’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grand Rapids's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,322 acres it covers and 313 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grand Rapids's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grand Rapids's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 9 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 313 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grand Rapids, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grand Rapids's boundary and the 14,322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grand Rapids's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grand Rapids's 14,322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Itasca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Itasca 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 Itasca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grand Rapids's 14,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grand Rapids you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Grand Rapids-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaGrand Rapids sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides