New Prague, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in New Prague, 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 New Prague 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 New Prague — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Prague — the short answer
New Prague, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 New Prague's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Prague's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Prague
Each reading below is measured for New Prague itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Prague runs about 181 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
MeasuredNew Prague 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 New Prague is in
New Prague sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Prague's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in New Prague
Every plant below cleared New Prague's own zone 4b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Prague?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near New Prague
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Prague. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mayo Clinic Health SystemUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- QUEEN OF PEACE HOSPITALBrownfields · 400 ft
- SUEL PRINTING COBrownfields · 750 ft
- ST WENCESLAUS SCHOOLBrownfields · 750 ft
- NEW PRAGUE CITY OFBrownfields · 850 ft
- DR DOUGLAS VAYDABrownfields · 850 ft
- Crawford Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MINNESOTA EYE CONSULTANTS NEWBrownfields · 850 ft
- W308 113N23W34DCCDB 01 0000240054Nitrate · 900 ft
- NEW PRAGUE MEDICAL CLINIC PABrownfields · 950 ft
- MAIN STREET DENTAL - NEW PRAGBrownfields · 950 ft
- SOUTH METRO THERAPLAYBrownfields · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Prague'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 New Prague.
Total Sites
297
within ~10 miles of New Prague
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Prague
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Prague
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Prague, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 178 sites within ~10 miles of New Prague. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 New Prague
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 New Prague average
Your land is one point inside New Prague
Everything above resolves to New Prague as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 New Prague Average
New Prague Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across New Prague
- ●One soil character for all of New Prague
- ●Frost dates read at New Prague's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Prague's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Prague
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Prague, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Prague averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Prague — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Prague average
How we know this about New Prague
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 New Prague’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 New Prague
When does frost risk typically end in New Prague?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Prague typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in New Prague?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Prague 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Prague?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Prague sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 4, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Prague?
The federal record around New Prague is a meaningful one — 297 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (178), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 New Prague?
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 New Prague's scale — its 4b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Prague'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 New Prague’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Prague's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,518 acres it covers and 297 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Prague's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Prague's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 18 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 297 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Prague, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Prague's boundary and the 2,518 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Prague'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 New Prague's 2,518 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Prague's 2,518 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Prague you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,518 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 New Prague-wide figureread your own land →
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