Moose Lake, 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.
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 Moose 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 Moose 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 Moose Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moose Lake — the short answer
Moose Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- 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 Moose Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moose Lake's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moose Lake
Each reading below is measured for Moose Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoose Lake runs about 156 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
MeasuredMoose Lake 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 Moose Lake is in
Moose Lake sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Moose Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carlton County.
What Grows in Moose Lake
Every plant below cleared Moose Lake's own zone 4a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moose Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Moose Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moose Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Federated Co-ops IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Gateway BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Former Moose Lake Oil and Tire IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MOOSE LAKE WATER AND LIGHT COMMISSIONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Us West CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MOOSE LAKE DENTAL CAREBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MPS RESOURCES INC/GATEWAY TIRE & SERVICEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Holiday Stationstore #127Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LIEFFRING CHIROPRACTIC LTD - MOOSE LAKEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Moose Lake Water & Light CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ST CROIX HOSPICEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- MOOSE LAKE IMPLEMENTBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moose 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 Moose Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moose Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moose Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moose Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Moose Lake. 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 Moose 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 Moose Lake average
Your land is one point inside Moose Lake
Everything above resolves to Moose Lake 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 Moose Lake Average
Moose Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Moose Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Moose Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Moose Lake's scale: May 3 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moose Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moose Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moose Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moose Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moose Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moose Lake average
How we know this about Moose 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 Moose 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 Moose Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Moose Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moose Lake typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Moose Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moose Lake typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moose Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moose Lake sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 22, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moose Lake?
The federal record around Moose Lake shows 172 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Moose Lake?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moose Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moose 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 Moose Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moose Lake's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,099 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moose Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moose Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 6 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moose Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moose Lake's boundary and the 2,099 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moose Lake's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moose Lake's 2,099 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carlton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carlton 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 Carlton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moose Lake's 2,099 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moose 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 2,099 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 Moose Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaMoose Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides