Hazel Run, 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.
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 Hazel Run, 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 Hazel Run 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 Hazel Run — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hazel Run — the short answer
Hazel Run, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 486 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 486 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 Hazel Run's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hazel Run's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hazel Run
Each reading below is measured for Hazel Run itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHazel Run runs about 174 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
MeasuredHazel Run 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 Hazel Run is in
Hazel Run sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hazel Run's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yellow Medicine County.
What Grows in Hazel Run
Every plant below cleared Hazel Run's own zone 4b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hazel Run?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Hazel Run
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hazel Run. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hazel Run city of - SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LUKE & MELISSA STEVENS FACILITYCAFO · 1.8 mi
- 115N41W15AAD 01 HandelandNitrate · 2.4 mi
- PAUL SYRING FARMCAFO · 3.7 mi
- STEVENS FARMS LLPCAFO · 3.7 mi
- 115N40W23DCB 01 HalversonNitrate · 4.2 mi
- 183597Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- YELLOW MEDICINE HHW COLLECTION PROGRAMBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- Wayne's StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Hanley Falls Coop Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 115N41W09BDD 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- Clarkfield ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hazel Run'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 Hazel Run.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of Hazel Run
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hazel Run
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hazel Run
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hazel Run, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hazel Run — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (82 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hazel Run
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 Hazel Run average
Your land is one point inside Hazel Run
Everything above resolves to Hazel Run as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 486 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 Hazel Run Average
Hazel Run Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hazel Run
- ●One soil character for all of Hazel Run
- ●Frost dates read at Hazel Run's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hazel Run's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hazel Run
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hazel Run, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hazel Run averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hazel Run — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hazel Run average
How we know this about Hazel Run
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 Hazel Run’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 Hazel Run
When does frost risk typically end in Hazel Run?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hazel Run typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Hazel Run?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hazel Run typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hazel Run?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hazel Run sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 27, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hazel Run?
The federal record around Hazel Run shows 175 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hazel Run?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hazel Run's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hazel Run'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 Hazel Run’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hazel Run's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 486 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hazel Run's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hazel Run's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 11 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hazel Run, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hazel Run's boundary and the 486 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hazel Run'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 Hazel Run's 486 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yellow Medicine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yellow Medicine 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 Yellow Medicine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hazel Run's 486 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hazel Run you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 486 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hazel Run-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaHazel Run sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides