Millville, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Millville, 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 Millville 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 Millville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Millville — the short answer
Millville, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 96 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 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
- 96 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 Millville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millville's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millville
Each reading below is measured for Millville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMillville 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
MeasuredMillville 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 Millville is in
Millville sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Millville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wabasha County.
What Grows in Millville
Every plant below cleared Millville's own zone 4b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Millville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Millville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Becklin AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Wabasha County Highway ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 109N12W18DAB 01 MillvilleNitrate · 550 ft
- Appels Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 141013Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 597777Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- MILLVILLE AUTOBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- APPELS SERVICEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Millville Feed MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 548873Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- MILLVILLE SALVAGEBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- Hammond StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millville'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 Millville.
Total Sites
148
within ~10 miles of Millville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Millville — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (86 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 Millville
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 Millville average
Your land is one point inside Millville
Everything above resolves to Millville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 96 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 Millville Average
Millville Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Millville
- ●One soil character for all of Millville
- ●Frost dates read at Millville's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millville's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millville, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millville average
How we know this about Millville
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 Millville’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 Millville
When does frost risk typically end in Millville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millville 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 Millville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millville 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 Millville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millville 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 Millville?
The federal record around Millville shows 148 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Millville?
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 Millville's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millville'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 Millville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Millville's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 96 acres it covers and 148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Millville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 14 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millville's boundary and the 96 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Millville's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millville's 96 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wabasha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wabasha 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 Wabasha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Millville's 96 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 96 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Millville-wide figureread your own land →
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