Hadley, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hadley, 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 Hadley 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 Hadley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hadley — the short answer
Hadley, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 188 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 188 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 Hadley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hadley's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hadley
Each reading below is measured for Hadley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHadley runs about 170 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
MeasuredHadley 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 Hadley is in
Hadley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hadley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Murray County.
What Grows in Hadley
Every plant below cleared Hadley's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hadley?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 10 — 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 Hadley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hadley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hadley Hardware & SteelUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Genes ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 500861Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- VANDER WAL BROTHERSCAFO · 2.4 mi
- BULDHAUPT - GRIMMIUS SITECAFO · 3.8 mi
- Lake Wilson Service Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- C M Barry ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Johnson Ditching & Plumbing ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Lake Wilson Call CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Chandler-lake Wilson School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- MURRAY COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- MILLER SELLNER SLAYTON LLCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hadley'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 Hadley.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Hadley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
19 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hadley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hadley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hadley, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Hadley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Hadley
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 Hadley average
Your land is one point inside Hadley
Everything above resolves to Hadley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 188 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 Hadley Average
Hadley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hadley
- ●One soil character for all of Hadley
- ●Frost dates read at Hadley's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hadley's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hadley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hadley, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hadley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hadley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hadley average
How we know this about Hadley
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 Hadley’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 Hadley
When does frost risk typically end in Hadley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hadley 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 Hadley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hadley 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 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hadley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hadley sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 26, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hadley?
The federal record around Hadley shows 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hadley?
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 Hadley's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hadley'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 Hadley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hadley's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 188 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hadley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hadley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 10 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hadley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hadley's boundary and the 188 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hadley'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 Hadley's 188 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Murray County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Murray 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 Murray County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hadley's 188 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hadley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 188 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hadley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaHadley sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides