Jordan, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Jordan, 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 Jordan 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 Jordan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jordan — the short answer
Jordan, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Jordan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jordan's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jordan
Each reading below is measured for Jordan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJordan runs about 186 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
MeasuredJordan 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 Jordan is in
Jordan sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jordan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Jordan
Every plant below cleared Jordan's own zone 4b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jordan?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Jordan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jordan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JORDAN FAMILY DENTALBrownfields · 950 ft
- B&T AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ISD 717 JORDAN MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1500 ft
- SAINT FRANCIS HEALTH SERVICES - JORDANBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ISD 717 JORDAN HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- JORDAN VETERINARY CLINICBrownfields · 1900 ft
- WOLF MOTORS CO INC - JORDANBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BENJAMIN BUS INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JORDAN ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Triangle OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- R & P AUTOBrownfields · 2300 ft
- TRIANGLE OIL CO. - JORDANBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jordan'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 Jordan.
Total Sites
681
within ~10 miles of Jordan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jordan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jordan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jordan, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 451 sites within ~10 miles of Jordan. 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 Jordan
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 Jordan average
Your land is one point inside Jordan
Everything above resolves to Jordan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Jordan Average
Jordan Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Jordan
- ●One soil character for all of Jordan
- ●Frost dates read at Jordan's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jordan's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jordan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jordan, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jordan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jordan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jordan average
How we know this about Jordan
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 Jordan’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 Jordan
When does frost risk typically end in Jordan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jordan typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Jordan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jordan typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jordan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jordan sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jordan?
The federal record around Jordan is a meaningful one — 681 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (451), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Jordan?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jordan's scale — its 4b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jordan'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 Jordan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jordan's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,322 acres it covers and 681 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jordan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jordan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 681 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jordan, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jordan's boundary and the 2,322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jordan'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 Jordan's 2,322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jordan's 2,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jordan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Jordan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides