New Trier, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Trier, 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 Trier 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 Trier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Trier — the short answer
New Trier, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 120 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 120 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 Trier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Trier's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Trier
Each reading below is measured for New Trier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Trier runs about 180 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 Trier 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 Trier is in
New Trier sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at New Trier's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dakota County.
What Grows in New Trier
Every plant below cleared New Trier's own zone 4b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Trier?
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 17 — 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 Trier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Trier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 113N18W11CDCC 01 PeineNitrate · 0.8 mi
- SCHAFFER TRUCK LINESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- B & S PropertiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Joseph J SchillerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DAKHUE SANITARY LANDFILLSuperfund · 2.2 mi
- NICOLAI REPAIRBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- PDCJ-C17 113N17W08ABCDBC01 W807 0000443901Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- PDCJ QW 113N18W16CADDBA01 0000179135Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- Formerly Chares Crites PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Hampton Pump And GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Farmers Union Co-0p Oil AssnUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PDCJ QW 113N18W20AAAAAB01 0000426961Nitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Trier'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 Trier.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Trier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Trier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Trier, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Trier — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (150 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 New Trier
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 Trier average
Your land is one point inside New Trier
Everything above resolves to New Trier as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 120 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 Trier Average
New Trier Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across New Trier
- ●One soil character for all of New Trier
- ●Frost dates read at New Trier's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Trier's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Trier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Trier, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Trier averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Trier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Trier average
How we know this about New Trier
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 Trier’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 Trier
When does frost risk typically end in New Trier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Trier 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 Trier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Trier typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Trier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Trier sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 3, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Trier?
The federal record around New Trier is a meaningful one — 498 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (216), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 New Trier?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Trier's scale — its 4b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Trier'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 Trier’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Trier's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 120 acres it covers and 498 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Trier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Trier's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 17 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 498 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Trier, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Trier's boundary and the 120 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Trier's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Trier's 120 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dakota 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 Dakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Trier's 120 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Trier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 120 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 New Trier-wide figureread your own land →
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