Hills, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hills, 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 Hills 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 Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hills — the short answer
Hills, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 403 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 403 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 Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hills's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hills
Each reading below is measured for Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHills runs about 173 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
MeasuredHills 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 Hills is in
Hills sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rock County.
What Grows in Hills
Every plant below cleared Hills's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISD 671 - HILLS-BEAVER CREEK SCHOOLSBrownfields · 500 ft
- Sundem Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Erwins Towing & RecoveryUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 101N46W28ABA 01 Hills 3Nitrate · 750 ft
- TUFF MEMORIAL HOMEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Hills Beaver Creek Farm ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- COLLIN AND CHERI LEUTHOLDCAFO · 1.9 mi
- NORTHERN HILLS FARMSCAFO · 2.2 mi
- LKNOBLOCK 35Toxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- DAVE'S REPAIR - HILLSBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- KELLENBERGER FARMS - SEC 32CAFO · 5.0 mi
- 100N47W21CCCDNitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hills'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 Hills.
Total Sites
99
within ~10 miles of Hills
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hills — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (48 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hills
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 Hills average
Your land is one point inside Hills
Everything above resolves to Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 403 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 Hills Average
Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Hills's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hills's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hills, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hills average
How we know this about Hills
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 Hills’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 Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hills typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hills 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 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hills sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 28, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hills?
The federal record around Hills shows 99 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hills?
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 Hills's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hills'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 Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hills's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 403 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 12 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hills, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hills's boundary and the 403 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hills'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 Hills's 403 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rock 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 Rock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hills's 403 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 403 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 Hills-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaHills sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides