North Oaks, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in North Oaks, 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 North Oaks 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 North Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Oaks — the short answer
North Oaks, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 5a is North Oaks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Oaks's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Oaks
Each reading below is measured for North Oaks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Oaks runs about 189 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
MeasuredNorth Oaks sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 North Oaks is in
North Oaks sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Oaks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ramsey County.
What Grows in North Oaks
Every plant below cleared North Oaks's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Oaks?
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 22 — 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 North Oaks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Oaks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 173931Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 195632Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 131239Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- LINDER ROGERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 107037Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- DAYTON LANG & ASSOCIATESBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MEL'S SERVICE, INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- North Oaks CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NORTH OAKS GOLF COURSE-WELL #7 SOFTENERBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- ISD 621 CHIPPEWA MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- OAK GROVE SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 449164Nitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Oaks'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 North Oaks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Oaks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Oaks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Oaks, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,856 sites within ~10 miles of North Oaks. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 North Oaks
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 North Oaks average
Your land is one point inside North Oaks
Everything above resolves to North Oaks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 North Oaks Average
North Oaks Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across North Oaks
- ●One soil character for all of North Oaks
- ●Frost dates read at North Oaks's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Oaks's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Oaks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Oaks, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Oaks averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Oaks average
How we know this about North Oaks
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 North Oaks’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 North Oaks
When does frost risk typically end in North Oaks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Oaks 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 North Oaks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Oaks typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Oaks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Oaks sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 8, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Oaks?
The federal record around North Oaks runs heavier than most — 5,498 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,856), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles 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 North Oaks?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Oaks's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Oaks'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 North Oaks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Oaks's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,422 acres it covers and 5,498 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Oaks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Oaks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 22 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,498 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Oaks, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Oaks's boundary and the 4,422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Oaks'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 North Oaks's 4,422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ramsey County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ramsey 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 Ramsey County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Oaks's 4,422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Oaks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 North Oaks-wide figureread your own land →
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