Lakeville, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Lakeville, 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 Lakeville 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 Lakeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lakeville — the short answer
Lakeville, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 24K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 24K 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 Lakeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakeville's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakeville
Each reading below is measured for Lakeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLakeville runs about 178 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
MeasuredLakeville 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 Lakeville is in
Lakeville sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lakeville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dakota County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lakeville
Every plant below cleared Lakeville's own zone 4b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakeville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. 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 Lakeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISD 194 CENTURY MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- THESE FAUX WALLSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- LIFETIME FITNESS - LAKEVILLEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CITY OF LAKEVILLE WATER TREATMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ISD 194 - LAKEVILLE NORTH HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- METRO DENTALCARE - LAKEVILLE IDEALICBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ISD 194 - KENWOOD TRAIL MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC CHURCHBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BLUE RIDGE SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- LAKE MARION DENTAL CAREBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- DAKOTA PET HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- LAKEVILLE DIALYSISBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakeville'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 Lakeville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakeville, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,678 sites within ~10 miles of Lakeville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Lakeville
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 Lakeville average
Your land is one point inside Lakeville
Everything above resolves to Lakeville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 24K 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 Lakeville Average
Lakeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lakeville
- ●One soil character for all of Lakeville
- ●Frost dates read at Lakeville's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakeville's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakeville, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakeville average
How we know this about Lakeville
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 Lakeville’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 Lakeville
When does frost risk typically end in Lakeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakeville typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Lakeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakeville 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakeville sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 1, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakeville?
The federal record around Lakeville is a meaningful one — 2,294 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,678), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles 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 Lakeville?
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 Lakeville's scale — its 4b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakeville'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 Lakeville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lakeville's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,626 acres it covers and 2,294 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lakeville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 15 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,294 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakeville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakeville's boundary and the 23,626 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lakeville sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lakeville's 23,626 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dakota 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 Dakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakeville's 23,626 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,626 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Lakeville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides