Harmony, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Harmony, 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 Harmony 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 Harmony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harmony — the short answer
Harmony, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 714 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
- 714 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 Harmony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harmony's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harmony
Each reading below is measured for Harmony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHarmony 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
MeasuredHarmony 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 Harmony is in
Harmony sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Harmony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fillmore County.
What Grows in Harmony
Every plant below cleared Harmony'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 Harmony?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Harmony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harmony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 101N10W14BCC 01 0000220988Nitrate · 700 ft
- ISD 2198 FILLMORE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 800 ft
- KNIFE RIVER MIDWEST LLC CRUSHING PLANT 2Brownfields · 900 ft
- Former Harmony Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Harmony city ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SEVERSON MILEAGE GAS STATIONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- HAMMELL EQUIPMENT INC - HARMONYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Fillmore Cty Hwy Shop Harmony - SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TOWN & COUNTRY COLLISION PLUSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Harmony Repair ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- GUNDERSEN LUTHERAN - HARMONY CLINICBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HARMONY COMMUNITY HEALTHCAREBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harmony'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 Harmony.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Harmony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harmony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harmony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harmony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Harmony — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (70 sites). 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.
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 Harmony
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 Harmony average
Your land is one point inside Harmony
Everything above resolves to Harmony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 714 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 Harmony Average
Harmony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Harmony
- ●One soil character for all of Harmony
- ●Frost dates read at Harmony's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harmony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harmony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harmony, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harmony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harmony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harmony average
How we know this about Harmony
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 Harmony’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 Harmony
When does frost risk typically end in Harmony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harmony 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 Harmony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harmony 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 Harmony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harmony 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 Harmony?
The federal record around Harmony shows 127 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Nitrate 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 Harmony?
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 Harmony's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harmony'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 Harmony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Harmony's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 714 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harmony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harmony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 12 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harmony, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harmony's boundary and the 714 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 Harmony's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harmony's 714 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fillmore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fillmore 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 Fillmore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harmony's 714 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harmony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 714 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Harmony-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Growing region