Maple Lake, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, 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 Maple Lake, 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 Maple Lake 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 Maple Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Maple Lake — the short answer
Maple Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Maple Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maple Lake's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maple Lake
Each reading below is measured for Maple Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaple Lake runs about 183 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
MeasuredMaple Lake 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 Maple Lake is in
Maple Lake sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Maple Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wright County.
What Grows in Maple Lake
Every plant below cleared Maple Lake's own zone 4b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maple Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Maple Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maple Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roger's Amoco IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PACE INDUSTRIES, PRODUCT TECHBrownfields · 1000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 15392Brownfields · 1300 ft
- GREAT RIVER ENERGY - MAPLE LAKEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Mooney Bus ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MAPLE LAKE MESSENGERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ELEVATION COATING LLCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SUNFISH DENTALBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ADMIRAL PAINTING INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Wright Hennepin Coop ElectricUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bells Service (former)Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ISD 881 - MAPLE LAKE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maple Lake'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 Maple Lake.
Total Sites
325
within ~10 miles of Maple Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maple Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maple Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maple Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Maple Lake — Nitrate (110 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Maple Lake
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 Maple Lake average
Your land is one point inside Maple Lake
Everything above resolves to Maple Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Maple Lake Average
Maple Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Maple Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Maple Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Maple Lake's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maple Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maple Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maple Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maple Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maple Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maple Lake average
How we know this about Maple Lake
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 Maple Lake’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 Maple Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Maple Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maple Lake typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Maple Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maple Lake typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maple Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maple Lake sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 4, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maple Lake?
The federal record around Maple Lake is a meaningful one — 325 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (128), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Maple Lake?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Maple Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maple Lake'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 Maple Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maple Lake's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,413 acres it covers and 325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maple Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maple Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 18 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maple Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maple Lake's boundary and the 1,413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maple Lake'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 Maple Lake's 1,413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wright County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wright 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 Wright County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maple Lake's 1,413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maple Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,413 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Maple Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaMaple Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides