Mound, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mound, 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 Mound 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 Mound — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mound — the short answer
Mound, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- 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 4b is Mound's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mound's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mound
Each reading below is measured for Mound itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMound runs about 191 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
MeasuredMound 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 Mound is in
Mound sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mound's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hennepin County.
What Grows in Mound
Every plant below cleared Mound's own zone 4b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mound?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Mound
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mound. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILLS SHIRLEY PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 500 ft
- Mound city ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MINUTEMAN PRESS MINNETONKA-MOBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SuperAmerica 4194Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SUPERAMERICA 4194Brownfields · 1600 ft
- TORO CO - MOUNDBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CR MANUFACTURING COToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- WEST LAKES DENTISTRYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 117N24W13DCC 01 Mound 3Nitrate · 1800 ft
- OUR LADY OF THE LAKE SCHOOLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- MOUND CITY OFBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Mound city of Public Works Garage - SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mound'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 Mound.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mound
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mound
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mound, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,172 sites within ~10 miles of Mound. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mound
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 Mound average
Your land is one point inside Mound
Everything above resolves to Mound 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 Mound Average
Mound Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Mound
- ●One soil character for all of Mound
- ●Frost dates read at Mound's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mound's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mound
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mound, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mound averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mound — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mound average
How we know this about Mound
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 Mound’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 Mound
When does frost risk typically end in Mound?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mound typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Mound?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mound typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mound?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mound sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 10, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mound?
The federal record around Mound runs heavier than most — 1,672 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,172), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mound?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mound's scale — its 4b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mound'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 Mound’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mound's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,831 acres it covers and 1,672 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mound's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mound's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 24 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,672 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mound, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mound's boundary and the 1,831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mound'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 Mound's 1,831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hennepin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hennepin 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 Hennepin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mound's 1,831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mound you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,831 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mound-wide figureread your own land →