Riverland, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Riverland, 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 Riverland 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 Riverland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Riverland — the short answer
Riverland, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 140 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 140 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 Riverland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riverland's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riverland
Each reading below is measured for Riverland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiverland 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
MeasuredRiverland 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 Riverland is in
Riverland sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Riverland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mahnomen County.
What Grows in Riverland
Every plant below cleared Riverland'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 Riverland?
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 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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Riverland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riverland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Shooting Star Conv Store Super PumpUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Former Midway ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Corner Gas ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WILD RICE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- MAHNOMEN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 17475Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- THRIFTY WHITE PHARMACY 752Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Community Co-ops of Lake Park - MahnomenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TRUE NORTH EQUIPMENT - MAHNOMBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Kochmann StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KOCHMANN STANDARDBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- AUTO VALUE - MAHNOMENBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riverland'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 Riverland.
Total Sites
46
within ~10 miles of Riverland
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riverland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riverland
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Riverland
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 Riverland average
Your land is one point inside Riverland
Everything above resolves to Riverland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 140 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 town 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 Riverland Average
Riverland Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Riverland
- ●One soil character for all of Riverland
- ●Frost dates read at Riverland's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riverland's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riverland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riverland, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riverland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riverland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riverland average
How we know this about Riverland
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Riverland’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Riverland
When does frost risk typically end in Riverland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riverland 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 Riverland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riverland 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 Riverland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riverland 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 Riverland?
The federal record around Riverland is light — 46 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Riverland?
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 Riverland's scale — its 4a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riverland'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 Riverland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Riverland's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 140 acres it covers and 46 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riverland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riverland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 10 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 46 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riverland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riverland's boundary and the 140 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 Riverland's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Riverland's 140 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mahnomen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mahnomen 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 Mahnomen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Riverland's 140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riverland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 140 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Riverland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaRiverland sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.