Kenyon, 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 Kenyon, 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 Kenyon 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 Kenyon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kenyon — the short answer
Kenyon, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Kenyon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kenyon's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kenyon
Each reading below is measured for Kenyon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKenyon runs about 178 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
MeasuredKenyon 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 Kenyon is in
Kenyon sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kenyon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Goodhue County is mostly Driftless Area. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kenyon
Every plant below cleared Kenyon's own zone 4b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kenyon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 — 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 Kenyon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kenyon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAIN STREET DENTAL - KENYONBrownfields · 200 ft
- Held Bus ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Bus Garage (formely)Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Kenyon Municipal UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Kenyon Motor MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- City Of Kenyon Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- KENYON WWTPBrownfields · 550 ft
- Sahl DonUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Jensens Service GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- River Country Coop MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Bombay StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kenyon Farmers ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kenyon'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 Kenyon.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Kenyon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kenyon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kenyon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kenyon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kenyon — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (62 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 Kenyon
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 Kenyon average
Your land is one point inside Kenyon
Everything above resolves to Kenyon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Kenyon Average
Kenyon Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Kenyon
- ●One soil character for all of Kenyon
- ●Frost dates read at Kenyon's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kenyon's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kenyon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kenyon, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kenyon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kenyon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kenyon average
How we know this about Kenyon
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 Kenyon’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 Kenyon
When does frost risk typically end in Kenyon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kenyon 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 Kenyon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kenyon typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kenyon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kenyon sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 1, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kenyon?
The federal record around Kenyon shows 130 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), 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 Kenyon?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kenyon's scale — its 4b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kenyon'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 Kenyon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kenyon's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,478 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kenyon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kenyon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 15 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kenyon, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kenyon's boundary and the 1,478 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kenyon sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kenyon's 1,478 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goodhue County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goodhue 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 Goodhue County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kenyon's 1,478 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kenyon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,478 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 Kenyon-wide figureread your own land →
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