Rock Creek, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Rock Creek, 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 Rock Creek 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 Rock Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rock Creek — the short answer
Rock Creek, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 28K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 28K 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 Rock Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rock Creek's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rock Creek
Each reading below is measured for Rock Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRock Creek 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
MeasuredRock Creek 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 Rock Creek is in
Rock Creek sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rock Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pine County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rock Creek
Every plant below cleared Rock Creek'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 Rock Creek?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Rock Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rock Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L&S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2200 ft
- 131794Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 038N21W26CCB 01 MoultonNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 433483Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- RC IRON HOG INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- 404910Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- ST CROIX NATL SCENIC RIVERBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- CHARGEWISE BATTERIESBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- 109255Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- KEVIN'S COLLISIONBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Rock Creek Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 038N21W17ACD 01 ScharmerNitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rock Creek'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 Rock Creek.
Total Sites
225
within ~10 miles of Rock Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rock Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rock Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rock Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of Rock Creek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rock Creek
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 Rock Creek average
Your land is one point inside Rock Creek
Everything above resolves to Rock Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 28K 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 Rock Creek Average
Rock Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Rock Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Rock Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Rock Creek's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rock Creek's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rock Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rock Creek, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rock Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rock Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rock Creek average
How we know this about Rock Creek
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 Rock Creek’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 Rock Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Rock Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rock Creek typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Rock Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rock Creek typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rock Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rock Creek sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 25, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rock Creek?
The federal record around Rock Creek is a meaningful one — 225 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), 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 Rock Creek?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rock Creek's scale — its 4a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rock Creek'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 Rock Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rock Creek's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 27,528 acres it covers and 225 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rock Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rock Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 9 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 225 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rock Creek, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rock Creek's boundary and the 27,528 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rock Creek sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rock Creek's 27,528 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pine 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 Pine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rock Creek's 27,528 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rock Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 27,528 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 Rock Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaRock Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.