Kimball, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kimball, 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 Kimball 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 Kimball — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kimball — the short answer
Kimball, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 968 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 968 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 Kimball's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kimball's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kimball
Each reading below is measured for Kimball itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKimball runs about 185 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
MeasuredKimball 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 Kimball is in
Kimball sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kimball's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stearns County.
What Grows in Kimball
Every plant below cleared Kimball's own zone 4b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kimball?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Kimball
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kimball. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RM JOHNSON CO RAILFAB SHOPBrownfields · 500 ft
- A M Maus & SonUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- A M MAUS & SONBrownfields · 700 ft
- KIMBALL WATER TOWERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- HENDRICKS BUS SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 19639Brownfields · 1400 ft
- ISD 739 KIMBALL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TCC MATERIALS - KIMBALL PLANT-BLOCK PLANT #1 SOFTENERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ARNOLDS OF KIMBALL INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 453086Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 122N29W02AAC R ADOLPH IRR WELLNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Caseys General Store #3303Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kimball'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 Kimball.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Kimball
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kimball
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kimball
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kimball, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kimball — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (62 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 Kimball
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 Kimball average
Your land is one point inside Kimball
Everything above resolves to Kimball as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 968 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 Kimball Average
Kimball Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Kimball
- ●One soil character for all of Kimball
- ●Frost dates read at Kimball's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kimball's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kimball
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kimball, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kimball averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kimball — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kimball average
How we know this about Kimball
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 Kimball’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 Kimball
When does frost risk typically end in Kimball?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kimball typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Kimball?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kimball typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kimball?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kimball sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 7, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kimball?
The federal record around Kimball shows 153 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 Kimball?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kimball's scale — its 4b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kimball'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 Kimball’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kimball's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 968 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kimball's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kimball's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 21 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kimball, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kimball's boundary and the 968 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kimball'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 Kimball's 968 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stearns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stearns 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 Stearns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kimball's 968 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kimball you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 968 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 Kimball-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaKimball sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides