Rushford Village, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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 Rushford Village, 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 Rushford Village 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 Rushford Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rushford Village — the short answer
Rushford Village, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- 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 4b is Rushford Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rushford Village's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rushford Village
Each reading below is measured for Rushford Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRushford Village runs about 178 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
MeasuredRushford Village 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 Rushford Village is in
Rushford Village sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rushford Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fillmore County.
What Grows in Rushford Village
Every plant below cleared Rushford Village's own zone 4b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rushford Village?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Rushford Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rushford Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRI-COUNTY ELECTRIC COOPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- ROYS SMALL ENGINE REPAIR OF RBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FARMERS COOP ELEV COBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- RUSHFORD DENTAL CLINICBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Municipal Garage/airportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Kwik Trip 609Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DAHL'S AUTO WORKS INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- STERLING DRUG STORE 24Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- RUSHFORD HARDWAREBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- STERLING LTC PHARMACY #30Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN HOME - RUSHFORDBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- L&L VOLKMAN AUTOBODY REPAIRBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rushford Village'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 Rushford Village.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Rushford Village
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rushford Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rushford Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rushford Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rushford Village — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rushford Village
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 Rushford Village average
Your land is one point inside Rushford Village
Everything above resolves to Rushford Village 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 Rushford Village Average
Rushford Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Rushford Village
- ●One soil character for all of Rushford Village
- ●Frost dates read at Rushford Village's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rushford Village's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rushford Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rushford Village, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rushford Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rushford Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rushford Village average
How we know this about Rushford Village
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 Rushford Village’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 Rushford Village
When does frost risk typically end in Rushford Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rushford Village typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Rushford Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rushford Village typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rushford Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rushford Village sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rushford Village?
The federal record around Rushford Village shows 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rushford Village?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rushford Village's scale — its 4b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rushford Village'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 Rushford Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rushford Village's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,444 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rushford Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rushford Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 16 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rushford Village, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rushford Village's boundary and the 21,444 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rushford Village's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rushford Village's 21,444 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fillmore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fillmore 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 Fillmore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rushford Village's 21,444 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rushford Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,444 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Rushford Village-wide figureread your own land →
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