Melrose, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Melrose, 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 Melrose 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 Melrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melrose — the short answer
Melrose, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 4a is Melrose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melrose's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melrose
Each reading below is measured for Melrose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelrose runs about 174 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
MeasuredMelrose sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Melrose is in
Melrose sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melrose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stearns County.
What Grows in Melrose
Every plant below cleared Melrose's own zone 4a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melrose?
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 14 — 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 Melrose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melrose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MELROSE PUBLIC UTILITIESBrownfields · 800 ft
- MUNSON FEEDSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DAN SCHMIDT PRINTING INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KRAFT INC WEST PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- MELROSE BEACON/BEACON PRESSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE, INC., MELROSEToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE, INC., MELROSEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MEHR'S REPAIRBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CENTRACARE HEALTH SYSTEM MELROSEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- C A P ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BOHLIG CLEANERS - MELROSEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Jennie-O Turkey StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melrose'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 Melrose.
Total Sites
284
within ~10 miles of Melrose
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melrose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melrose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melrose, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Melrose — CAFO (20 sites) and Nitrate (76 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Melrose
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 Melrose average
Your land is one point inside Melrose
Everything above resolves to Melrose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Melrose Average
Melrose Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Melrose
- ●One soil character for all of Melrose
- ●Frost dates read at Melrose's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melrose's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melrose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melrose, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melrose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melrose average
How we know this about Melrose
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 Melrose’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 Melrose
When does frost risk typically end in Melrose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melrose 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 Melrose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melrose typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melrose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melrose sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 30, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melrose?
The federal record around Melrose is a meaningful one — 284 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Melrose?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melrose's scale — its 4a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melrose'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 Melrose’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Melrose's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,031 acres it covers and 284 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melrose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melrose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 14 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 284 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melrose, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melrose's boundary and the 2,031 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melrose'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 Melrose's 2,031 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stearns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stearns 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 Stearns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melrose's 2,031 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melrose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,031 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 Melrose-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaMelrose sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides