Riverton, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Riverton, 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 Riverton 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 Riverton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Riverton — the short answer
Riverton, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 518 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 518 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 Riverton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riverton's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riverton
Each reading below is measured for Riverton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiverton runs about 164 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
MeasuredRiverton 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 Riverton is in
Riverton sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Riverton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crow Wing County.
What Grows in Riverton
Every plant below cleared Riverton's own zone 4a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Riverton?
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 11 — 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 Riverton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riverton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREAT RIVER ENERGY - RIVERTON SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- 046N29W18DCB 01Nitrate · 2400 ft
- 589583Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 474760Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Lake Hubert StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CROW WING COUNTY SANITARY LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Crow Wing Co Solid Waste Cell 4 Exc - CSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- DOUGLAS MACHINE INC/DAVIS BUSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- ILEVEL BY WEYERHAEUSER - IRONTON FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- 047N29W32DDB 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- PERPICH PAUL DDS - IRONTONBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- 046N29W14ABB 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riverton'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 Riverton.
Total Sites
322
within ~10 miles of Riverton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riverton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riverton
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 Riverton
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 Riverton average
Your land is one point inside Riverton
Everything above resolves to Riverton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 518 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 Riverton Average
Riverton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Riverton
- ●One soil character for all of Riverton
- ●Frost dates read at Riverton's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riverton's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riverton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riverton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riverton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riverton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riverton average
How we know this about Riverton
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 Riverton’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 Riverton
When does frost risk typically end in Riverton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riverton 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 Riverton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riverton typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Riverton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riverton sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 27, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Riverton?
The federal record around Riverton is a meaningful one — 322 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (149), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Riverton?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Riverton's scale — its 4a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riverton'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 Riverton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Riverton's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 518 acres it covers and 322 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riverton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riverton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 11 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 322 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riverton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riverton's boundary and the 518 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Riverton'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 Riverton's 518 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crow Wing County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crow Wing 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 Crow Wing County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Riverton's 518 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riverton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 518 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Riverton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaRiverton sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides