Lamberton, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lamberton, 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 Lamberton 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 Lamberton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lamberton — the short answer
Lamberton, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 489 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 489 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 Lamberton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lamberton's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lamberton
Each reading below is measured for Lamberton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLamberton 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
MeasuredLamberton 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 Lamberton is in
Lamberton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lamberton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Redwood County.
What Grows in Lamberton
Every plant below cleared Lamberton's own zone 5a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lamberton?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Lamberton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lamberton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAUL LAGRUE DBA P&B SERVICESBrownfields · 650 ft
- MERC - LAMBERTON TBSBrownfields · 900 ft
- RAY'S AUTO CLINICBrownfields · 900 ft
- LARRYS FARM SERVICEBrownfields · 900 ft
- STEPHEN H DANIELSON DDSBrownfields · 900 ft
- LAMBERTON CLINIC-NEW ULM MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MEADOWLAND FARMERS COOP OF LAMBERTONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Lamberton-wabasso Farmers ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SACKETT IMPLEMENT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ISD 2884 Red Rock CentralUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOUG'S AUTOBrownfields · 2400 ft
- VALLEY VIEW MANORBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lamberton'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 Lamberton.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Lamberton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lamberton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lamberton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lamberton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lamberton — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (52 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 Lamberton
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 Lamberton average
Your land is one point inside Lamberton
Everything above resolves to Lamberton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 489 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 Lamberton Average
Lamberton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lamberton
- ●One soil character for all of Lamberton
- ●Frost dates read at Lamberton's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lamberton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lamberton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lamberton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lamberton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lamberton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lamberton average
How we know this about Lamberton
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 Lamberton’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 Lamberton
When does frost risk typically end in Lamberton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lamberton typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Lamberton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lamberton typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lamberton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lamberton sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 28, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lamberton?
The federal record around Lamberton shows 100 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Brownfields 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 Lamberton?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lamberton's scale — its 5a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lamberton'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 Lamberton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lamberton's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 489 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lamberton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lamberton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 12 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lamberton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lamberton's boundary and the 489 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lamberton'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 Lamberton's 489 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Redwood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Redwood 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 Redwood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lamberton's 489 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lamberton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 489 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Lamberton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaLamberton sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides