Ramsey, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ramsey, 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 Ramsey 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 Ramsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ramsey — the short answer
Ramsey, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 18K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Ramsey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ramsey's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ramsey
Each reading below is measured for Ramsey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRamsey runs about 184 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
MeasuredRamsey 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 Ramsey is in
Ramsey sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ramsey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in Ramsey
Every plant below cleared Ramsey's own zone 4b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ramsey?
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 18 — 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 Ramsey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ramsey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-30 032N25W15CAC 06 Fossen, Ed DFNitrate · 2400 ft
- 032N25W15CAC 01Nitrate · 2400 ft
- 032N25W15CAC 02Nitrate · 2400 ft
- GALINDO ELECTRICBrownfields · 2400 ft
- A20 032N25W15CAC 05 Fossen HouseNitrate · 2500 ft
- 179086Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- WELSH ENGINE SALESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 421045Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- A24-S 032N25W22BAC 01 SwansonNitrate · 0.6 mi
- HEICHEL BRIANBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- GERDES RACINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- H152839_001Nitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ramsey'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 Ramsey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ramsey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ramsey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ramsey, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,377 sites within ~10 miles of Ramsey. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Ramsey
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 Ramsey average
Your land is one point inside Ramsey
Everything above resolves to Ramsey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Ramsey Average
Ramsey Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Ramsey
- ●One soil character for all of Ramsey
- ●Frost dates read at Ramsey's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ramsey's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ramsey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ramsey, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ramsey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ramsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ramsey average
How we know this about Ramsey
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 Ramsey’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 Ramsey
When does frost risk typically end in Ramsey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ramsey 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 Ramsey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ramsey 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ramsey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ramsey sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ramsey?
The federal record around Ramsey runs heavier than most — 2,082 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,377), 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 Ramsey?
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 Ramsey's scale — its 4b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ramsey'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 Ramsey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ramsey's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,468 acres it covers and 2,082 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ramsey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ramsey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,082 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ramsey, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ramsey's boundary and the 18,468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ramsey'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 Ramsey's 18,468 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 Ramsey's 18,468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ramsey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,468 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 Ramsey-wide figureread your own land →
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