Parkers Prairie, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Parkers Prairie, 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 Parkers Prairie 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 Parkers Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Parkers Prairie — the short answer
Parkers Prairie, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 797 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 797 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 Parkers Prairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parkers Prairie's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parkers Prairie
Each reading below is measured for Parkers Prairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParkers Prairie runs about 168 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
MeasuredParkers Prairie 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 Parkers Prairie is in
Parkers Prairie sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Parkers Prairie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otter Tail County.
What Grows in Parkers Prairie
Every plant below cleared Parkers Prairie's own zone 4a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parkers Prairie?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Parkers Prairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parkers Prairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SANFORD CLINICBrownfields · 250 ft
- RICK & BOB'S PRAIRIE AUTO SERBrownfields · 250 ft
- Dick's Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Carols AnteeksUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DICK'S STANDARD SERVICEBrownfields · 650 ft
- ST WILLIAMS LIVING CENTERBrownfields · 800 ft
- ISD 547 Parkers Prairie High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ISD 547 - PARKERS PRAIRIE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 131N37W22BBA 02Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 131N37W22BBA 01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Jensen CharlesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PRAIRIE IMPLEMENT INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parkers Prairie'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 Parkers Prairie.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Parkers Prairie
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parkers Prairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parkers Prairie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parkers Prairie, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Parkers Prairie. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Parkers Prairie
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 Parkers Prairie average
Your land is one point inside Parkers Prairie
Everything above resolves to Parkers Prairie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 797 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 Parkers Prairie Average
Parkers Prairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Parkers Prairie
- ●One soil character for all of Parkers Prairie
- ●Frost dates read at Parkers Prairie's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parkers Prairie's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parkers Prairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parkers Prairie, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parkers Prairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parkers Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parkers Prairie average
How we know this about Parkers Prairie
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 Parkers Prairie’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 Parkers Prairie
When does frost risk typically end in Parkers Prairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parkers Prairie typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Parkers Prairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parkers Prairie typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parkers Prairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parkers Prairie sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 28, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parkers Prairie?
The federal record around Parkers Prairie shows 82 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Brownfields 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 Parkers Prairie?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parkers Prairie's scale — its 4a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parkers Prairie'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 Parkers Prairie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Parkers Prairie's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 797 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parkers Prairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Parkers Prairie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 12 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parkers Prairie, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parkers Prairie's boundary and the 797 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parkers Prairie'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 Parkers Prairie's 797 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 Parkers Prairie's 797 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parkers Prairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 797 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 Parkers Prairie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaParkers Prairie sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides