Prior Lake, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Prior Lake, 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 Prior Lake 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 Prior Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prior Lake — the short answer
Prior Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Prior Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prior Lake's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prior Lake
Each reading below is measured for Prior Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrior Lake runs about 185 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
MeasuredPrior Lake 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 Prior Lake is in
Prior Lake sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prior Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Prior Lake
Every plant below cleared Prior Lake's own zone 4b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prior Lake?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Prior Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prior Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KNOTTY OAR MARINA CORPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Knotty Oar Marina CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Donald AbramsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- INNOVATIVE MASONRYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- OLSON DENTALBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PRIOR LAKE DEVELOPMENTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- BELLAND FAMILY DENTISTRYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CJS INBOARD MARINE SPECIALTIESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BRAD HANSON'S PRO FINISHERS INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PRIOR LAKE MOTORSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- COLLISION CENTER 1 PRIOR LAKEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- KRAMER CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH CENTER LTDBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prior Lake'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 Prior Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prior Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prior Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prior Lake, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,938 sites within ~10 miles of Prior Lake. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Prior Lake
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 Prior Lake average
Your land is one point inside Prior Lake
Everything above resolves to Prior Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Prior Lake Average
Prior Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Prior Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Prior Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Prior Lake's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prior Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prior Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prior Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prior Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prior Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prior Lake average
How we know this about Prior Lake
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 Prior Lake’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 Prior Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Prior Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prior Lake typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Prior Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prior Lake typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prior Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prior Lake sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prior Lake?
The federal record around Prior Lake is a meaningful one — 2,572 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,938), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles 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 Prior Lake?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prior Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prior Lake'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 Prior Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prior Lake's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,428 acres it covers and 2,572 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prior Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prior Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,572 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prior Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prior Lake's boundary and the 10,428 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prior Lake'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 Prior Lake's 10,428 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prior Lake's 10,428 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prior Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,428 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Prior Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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