Lafayette, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lafayette, 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lafayette — the short answer
Lafayette, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 805 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
- 805 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 Lafayette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lafayette's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lafayette
Each reading below is measured for Lafayette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLafayette 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
MeasuredLafayette 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 Lafayette is in
Lafayette sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lafayette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nicollet County.
What Grows in Lafayette
Every plant below cleared Lafayette'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 Lafayette?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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. 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 Lafayette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lafayette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL #21884Brownfields · 400 ft
- UNITED FARMERS COOP-LAFAYETTEBrownfields · 450 ft
- Lafayette C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Central Concrete Inc - LafayetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Uptown ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Globes LloydUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 691456Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- BRUCE & LAURIE PLATZ FARM - SCAFO · 1.7 mi
- 723194Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 731402Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- PLATZ FINISHING LLCCAFO · 2.7 mi
- 607009Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lafayette'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 Lafayette.
Total Sites
277
within ~10 miles of Lafayette
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lafayette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lafayette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lafayette, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lafayette — CAFO (16 sites) and Nitrate (114 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 Lafayette
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 Lafayette average
Your land is one point inside Lafayette
Everything above resolves to Lafayette as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 805 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 Lafayette Average
Lafayette Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lafayette
- ●One soil character for all of Lafayette
- ●Frost dates read at Lafayette's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lafayette's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lafayette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lafayette, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lafayette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lafayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lafayette average
How we know this about Lafayette
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 Lafayette’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 Lafayette
When does frost risk typically end in Lafayette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lafayette 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 Lafayette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lafayette 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 Lafayette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lafayette 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 Lafayette?
The federal record around Lafayette is a meaningful one — 277 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (114), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lafayette?
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 Lafayette's scale — its 4b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lafayette'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 Lafayette’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lafayette's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 805 acres it covers and 277 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lafayette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lafayette's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 277 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lafayette, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lafayette's boundary and the 805 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 Lafayette'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 Lafayette's 805 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nicollet County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nicollet 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 Nicollet County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lafayette's 805 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lafayette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 805 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 Lafayette-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaLafayette sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.