Lake Henry, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Henry, 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 Henry 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 Henry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Henry — the short answer
Lake Henry, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 127 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- 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
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 127 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 Henry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Henry's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Henry
Each reading below is measured for Lake Henry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Henry runs about 172 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 Henry 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 Henry is in
Lake Henry sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Henry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stearns County.
What Grows in Lake Henry
Every plant below cleared Lake Henry's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Henry?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (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. 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 Henry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Henry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE HENRY BODY & AUTO INCBrownfields · 350 ft
- NOTCH MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LAKE HENRY IMPLEMENT INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- 115996Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 404098Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- A&A RECYCLINGBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- REECK FARM LLC DBA GREENWOOD DAIRYCAFO · 3.0 mi
- 451805Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 473353Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 422718Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- SPRING HILL GARAGEBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- Spring Hill GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Henry'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 Henry.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Lake Henry
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Henry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Henry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Henry, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Henry — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (78 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 Henry
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 Henry average
Your land is one point inside Lake Henry
Everything above resolves to Lake Henry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127 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 Henry Average
Lake Henry Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lake Henry
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Henry
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Henry's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Henry's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Henry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Henry, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Henry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Henry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Henry average
How we know this about Lake Henry
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 Henry’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 Henry
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Henry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Henry typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Lake Henry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Henry 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 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Henry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Henry sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 1, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Henry?
The federal record around Lake Henry shows 176 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), 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 Lake Henry?
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 Lake Henry's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Henry'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 Henry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Henry's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 127 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Henry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Henry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 15 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Henry, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Henry's boundary and the 127 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Henry'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 Lake Henry's 127 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 Lake Henry's 127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Henry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 127 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 Lake Henry-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaLake Henry sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides