New York Mills, 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.
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 York Mills, 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 York Mills 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 York Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New York Mills — the short answer
New York Mills, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 950 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 950 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 New York Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New York Mills's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New York Mills
Each reading below is measured for New York Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew York Mills runs about 162 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 York Mills 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 New York Mills is in
New York Mills sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New York Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otter Tail County.
What Grows in New York Mills
Every plant below cleared New York Mills's own zone 4a and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New York Mills?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 York Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New York Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cenex Coop Services- C-storeUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- OTTER TAIL COUNTY GARAGE - SIGNBrownfields · 650 ft
- MILLS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 900 ft
- VAUGHN AUTO & MARINE COBrownfields · 900 ft
- 135N37W08CAA 01 N Y Mills 0000221547Nitrate · 1000 ft
- Casey's General Store #3096Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PERHAM HEALTH - NEW YORK MILLSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ISD 553 NEW YORK MILLS AG SHOPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- INDUSTRIAL FINISHING SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Lund Boat CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BRUNSWICK NEW YORK MILLS OPERATIONSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- BRUNSWICK NEW YORK MILLS OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New York Mills'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 York Mills.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of New York Mills
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New York Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New York Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New York Mills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of New York Mills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 New York Mills
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 York Mills average
Your land is one point inside New York Mills
Everything above resolves to New York Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 950 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 York Mills Average
New York Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across New York Mills
- ●One soil character for all of New York Mills
- ●Frost dates read at New York Mills's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New York Mills's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New York Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New York Mills, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New York Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around New York Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New York Mills average
How we know this about New York Mills
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 York Mills’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 York Mills
When does frost risk typically end in New York Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New York Mills typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in New York Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New York Mills typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New York Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New York Mills sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New York Mills?
The federal record around New York Mills shows 113 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (72), 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 New York Mills?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New York Mills's scale — its 4a band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New York Mills'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 York Mills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New York Mills's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 950 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New York Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New York Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New York Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New York Mills's boundary and the 950 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New York Mills'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 York Mills's 950 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otter Tail County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New York Mills's 950 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New York Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 950 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 York Mills-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaNew York Mills sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides