Louisburg, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Louisburg, 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 Louisburg 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 Louisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Louisburg — the short answer
Louisburg, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 163 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 Louisburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Louisburg's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Louisburg
Each reading below is measured for Louisburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLouisburg runs about 168 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
MeasuredLouisburg 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 Louisburg is in
Louisburg sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Louisburg's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lac qui Parle County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Louisburg
Every plant below cleared Louisburg's own zone 4b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Louisburg?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Louisburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Louisburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 548152Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 119N44W15ACB 01 C FassenNitrate · 3.2 mi
- GOLDBECK SALVAGEBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- 119N44W29ABA 01 WillardNitrate · 5.0 mi
- 102229Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 213892Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 519211Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 121N43W31CDC 01 ThostensonNitrate · 6.0 mi
- 482205Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 503561Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - APPLETON 1 TBSBrownfields · 7.2 mi
- MERC - LAC QUI TBSBrownfields · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Louisburg'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 Louisburg.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Louisburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Louisburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Louisburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Louisburg, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Louisburg. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Louisburg
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 Louisburg average
Your land is one point inside Louisburg
Everything above resolves to Louisburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 Louisburg Average
Louisburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Louisburg
- ●One soil character for all of Louisburg
- ●Frost dates read at Louisburg's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Louisburg's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Louisburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Louisburg, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Louisburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Louisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Louisburg average
How we know this about Louisburg
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 Louisburg’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 Louisburg
When does frost risk typically end in Louisburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Louisburg 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 Louisburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Louisburg 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 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Louisburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Louisburg sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 24, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Louisburg?
The federal record around Louisburg shows 72 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.0 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 Louisburg?
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 Louisburg's scale — its 4b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Louisburg'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 Louisburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Louisburg's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Louisburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Louisburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 8 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Louisburg, the closest Nitrate record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Louisburg's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Louisburg sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Louisburg's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lac qui Parle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lac qui Parle 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 Lac qui Parle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Louisburg's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Louisburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.0 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 Louisburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaLouisburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides