Ogilvie, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ogilvie, 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 Ogilvie 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 Ogilvie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ogilvie — the short answer
Ogilvie, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 570 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 570 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 Ogilvie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ogilvie's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ogilvie
Each reading below is measured for Ogilvie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOgilvie runs about 164 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
MeasuredOgilvie 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 Ogilvie is in
Ogilvie sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ogilvie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kanabec County.
What Grows in Ogilvie
Every plant below cleared Ogilvie's own zone 4a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ogilvie?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. 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 Ogilvie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ogilvie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL 19519Brownfields · 300 ft
- OGILVIE OLD SCHOOLSuperfund · 1200 ft
- HI-TEK RUBBER INC - OGILVIEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- QUALITY DISPOSALBrownfields · 1700 ft
- 039N25W35BAC 01 OgilvieNitrate · 2100 ft
- OGILVIE PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Munsterteiger RonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- S & R MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Casey's General Store #3305Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Palmer TowingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Ogilvie Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OGILVIE COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ogilvie'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 Ogilvie.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Ogilvie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ogilvie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ogilvie
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ogilvie
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 Ogilvie average
Your land is one point inside Ogilvie
Everything above resolves to Ogilvie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 570 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 Ogilvie Average
Ogilvie Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Ogilvie
- ●One soil character for all of Ogilvie
- ●Frost dates read at Ogilvie's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ogilvie's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ogilvie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ogilvie, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ogilvie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ogilvie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ogilvie average
How we know this about Ogilvie
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 Ogilvie’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 Ogilvie
When does frost risk typically end in Ogilvie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ogilvie typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Ogilvie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ogilvie 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 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ogilvie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ogilvie sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 25, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ogilvie?
The federal record around Ogilvie is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (60), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ogilvie?
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 Ogilvie's scale — its 4a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ogilvie'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 Ogilvie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ogilvie's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 570 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ogilvie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ogilvie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 9 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ogilvie, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ogilvie's boundary and the 570 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ogilvie'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 Ogilvie's 570 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kanabec County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kanabec 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 Kanabec County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ogilvie's 570 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ogilvie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 570 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ogilvie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaOgilvie sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.