Lake Benton, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Benton, 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 Lake Benton 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 Lake Benton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Benton — the short answer
Lake Benton, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- 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 Lake Benton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Benton's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Benton
Each reading below is measured for Lake Benton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Benton runs about 167 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
MeasuredLake Benton 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 Lake Benton is in
Lake Benton sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Benton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Lake Benton
Every plant below cleared Lake Benton's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Benton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Lake Benton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Benton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MNDOT District 8 Lake BentonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MNDOT DISTRICT 8 LAKE BENTONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- JOURNAL PRINTING COBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LAKE BENTON SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LAKE BENTON POWER PARTNERS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LINCOLN-PIPESTONE RURAL WATER SYSTEM-EDGERTON WELL ENTRY POINTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 110N45W31DDA 01 SimonsenNitrate · 1.8 mi
- Courteous Professional Repair (CPR)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- John Arens PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Veires Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Lincoln County Coop Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Lake Benton School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Benton'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 Lake Benton.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of Lake Benton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Benton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Benton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Benton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Benton — CAFO (11 sites) and Nitrate (32 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 Lake Benton
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 Lake Benton average
Your land is one point inside Lake Benton
Everything above resolves to Lake Benton 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 Lake Benton Average
Lake Benton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lake Benton
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Benton
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Benton's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Benton's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Benton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Benton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Benton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Benton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Benton average
How we know this about Lake Benton
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 Lake Benton’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 Lake Benton
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Benton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Benton typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Lake Benton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Benton typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Benton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Benton sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 24, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Benton?
The federal record around Lake Benton shows 84 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Lake Benton?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Benton's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Benton'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 Lake Benton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Benton's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,053 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Benton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Benton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 8 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Benton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Benton's boundary and the 2,053 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Benton's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Benton's 2,053 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Benton's 2,053 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Benton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,053 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lake Benton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaLake Benton sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.