Oak Grove, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Oak Grove, 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 Oak Grove 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 Oak Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oak Grove — the short answer
Oak Grove, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 22K 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
- 22K 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 Oak Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Grove's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Grove
Each reading below is measured for Oak Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOak Grove 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
MeasuredOak Grove 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 Oak Grove is in
Oak Grove sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oak Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in Oak Grove
Every plant below cleared Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Oak Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 698777Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 462135Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- AUSTIN TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- STEVES COLLISION INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MAGNUM SUPERCHARGERSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 588095Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- MARK NORDIN ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ANOKA COUNTY PARKS NORTH SHOPBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BAXTER CLASSIC CAR CAREBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 649220Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- City Of East Bethel Fire StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- OAK GROVE ANIMAL HOSPITAL - OBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oak Grove — Nitrate (334 sites) and Brownfields (490 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Oak Grove
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 Oak Grove average
Your land is one point inside Oak Grove
Everything above resolves to Oak Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Oak Grove Average
Oak Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Oak Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Grove's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Grove's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Grove, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Grove average
How we know this about Oak Grove
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 Oak Grove’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 Oak Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Grove 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 Oak Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Grove 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 Oak Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Grove 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 Oak Grove?
The federal record around Oak Grove runs heavier than most — 984 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (490), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Oak Grove?
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 Oak Grove's scale — its 4b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oak Grove's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,701 acres it covers and 984 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oak Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 18 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 984 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Grove, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Grove's boundary and the 21,701 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 Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove's 21,701 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anoka 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 Anoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Grove's 21,701 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,701 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Oak Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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