Rice Lake, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Rice 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 Rice 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 Rice Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rice Lake — the short answer
Rice Lake, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Rice Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rice Lake's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rice Lake
Each reading below is measured for Rice Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRice Lake runs about 163 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
MeasuredRice Lake 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 Rice Lake is in
Rice Lake sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Rice Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Rice Lake
Every plant below cleared Rice Lake's own zone 4a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rice Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Rice Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rice Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M D AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BRAD'S AUTO CLINICBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- TERRYS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- 530599Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Voyaguer Bus CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 517078Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- RUSS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Genesen Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- AUTO CURE SERVICEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- GREAT LAKES STONEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- ADK MOTORSPORTSBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- TOWN OF RICE LAKEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rice 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 Rice Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rice Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rice Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rice Lake, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 470 sites within ~10 miles of Rice 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 Rice 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 Rice Lake average
Your land is one point inside Rice Lake
Everything above resolves to Rice Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Rice Lake Average
Rice Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Rice Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Rice Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Rice Lake's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rice Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rice Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rice Lake, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rice Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rice Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rice Lake average
How we know this about Rice 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 Rice 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 Rice Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Rice Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rice Lake typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Rice Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rice Lake typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rice Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rice Lake sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 26, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rice Lake?
The federal record around Rice Lake is a meaningful one — 768 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (470), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Rice Lake?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rice Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rice 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 Rice Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rice Lake's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,945 acres it covers and 768 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rice Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rice Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 10 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 768 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rice Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rice Lake's boundary and the 20,945 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rice Lake's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rice Lake's 20,945 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis 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 St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rice Lake's 20,945 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rice 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 20,945 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Rice Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaRice Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides