Ham Lake, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Ham Lake, 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 Ham Lake 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 Ham Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ham Lake — the short answer
Ham Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 22K 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 Ham Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ham Lake's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ham Lake
Each reading below is measured for Ham Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHam Lake 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
MeasuredHam Lake 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 Ham Lake is in
Ham Lake sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ham Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in Ham Lake
Every plant below cleared Ham Lake'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 Ham Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Ham Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ham Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 603276Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 565744Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- PGMBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 126804Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 425785Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- A17-H 032N23W28AAC 02 MccannNitrate · 1.3 mi
- A16-S 032N23W28AAC 01 MccannNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 658677Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Ham Lake Residential WellsNitrate · 1.3 mi
- JELLISONS AUTOBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- H152842_001Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- H152841_001Nitrate · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ham Lake'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 Ham Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ham Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ham Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ham Lake, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,465 sites within ~10 miles of Ham Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Ham Lake
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 Ham Lake average
Your land is one point inside Ham Lake
Everything above resolves to Ham Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Ham Lake Average
Ham Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Ham Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Ham Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Ham Lake's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ham Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ham Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ham Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ham Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ham Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ham Lake average
How we know this about Ham Lake
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 Ham Lake’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 Ham Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Ham Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ham Lake 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 Ham Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ham Lake 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 Ham Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ham Lake 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 Ham Lake?
The federal record around Ham Lake runs heavier than most — 2,184 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,465), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ham Lake?
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 Ham Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ham Lake'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 Ham Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ham Lake's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,026 acres it covers and 2,184 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ham Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ham Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ham Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ham Lake's boundary and the 22,026 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 Ham Lake'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 Ham Lake's 22,026 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anoka 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 Anoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ham Lake's 22,026 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ham Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,026 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Ham Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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