Lakefield, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lakefield, 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 Lakefield 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 Lakefield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lakefield — the short answer
Lakefield, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 856 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 856 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 5a is Lakefield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakefield's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakefield
Each reading below is measured for Lakefield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLakefield runs about 175 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
MeasuredLakefield sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Lakefield is in
Lakefield sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lakefield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Lakefield
Every plant below cleared Lakefield's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakefield?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Lakefield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakefield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Coop Ag CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LEWIS FAMILY DRUG 76Brownfields · 700 ft
- LAKEFIELD POLICE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 700 ft
- GREEN EARTH RECYCLINGBrownfields · 750 ft
- ISD 2895 - JACKSON COUNTY CENBrownfields · 750 ft
- BANDYS TV & APPLIANCEBrownfields · 950 ft
- 103N36W33CBC 03Nitrate · 1200 ft
- LAKEFIELD PUBLIC UTILITIESBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Lakefield ExpresswayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Hage Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Jackson Cty Hwy Dept Secondary Shop - SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- P.d.s. Repair & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakefield'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 Lakefield.
Total Sites
136
within ~10 miles of Lakefield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakefield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakefield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakefield, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Lakefield. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Lakefield
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 Lakefield average
Your land is one point inside Lakefield
Everything above resolves to Lakefield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 856 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 Lakefield Average
Lakefield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lakefield
- ●One soil character for all of Lakefield
- ●Frost dates read at Lakefield's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakefield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakefield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakefield, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakefield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakefield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakefield average
How we know this about Lakefield
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 Lakefield’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 Lakefield
When does frost risk typically end in Lakefield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakefield typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lakefield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakefield typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakefield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakefield sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 29, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakefield?
The federal record around Lakefield shows 136 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lakefield?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lakefield's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakefield'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 Lakefield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lakefield's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 856 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakefield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lakefield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 13 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakefield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakefield's boundary and the 856 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lakefield'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 Lakefield's 856 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakefield's 856 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakefield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 856 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lakefield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaLakefield sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides