Scandia, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scandia, 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 Scandia 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 Scandia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Scandia — the short answer
Scandia, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 22K 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 Scandia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scandia's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scandia
Each reading below is measured for Scandia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScandia runs about 177 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
MeasuredScandia 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 Scandia is in
Scandia sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scandia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Scandia
Every plant below cleared Scandia's own zone 4b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scandia?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Scandia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scandia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gte #1829050Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LINDELL EXCAVATINGBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- GRANTS SMALL ENGINE REPAIRBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SCANDIA CHIROPRACTIC CLINICBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SCANDIA HAIR DESIGNBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SCANDIA FAMILY DENTAL PABrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SCANDIA VETERINARY CLINIC PABrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Scandia Family Dental PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TRI STAR TRUCK PAINTINGBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SCANDIA FOUR SEASON POWER INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- NICKELSON PLASTICS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- Nickelson PlasticsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scandia'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 Scandia.
Total Sites
542
within ~10 miles of Scandia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scandia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scandia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scandia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scandia — PFAS (6 sites) and Brownfields (288 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Scandia
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 Scandia average
Your land is one point inside Scandia
Everything above resolves to Scandia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Scandia Average
Scandia Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Scandia
- ●One soil character for all of Scandia
- ●Frost dates read at Scandia's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scandia's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scandia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scandia, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scandia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scandia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scandia average
How we know this about Scandia
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 Scandia’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 Scandia
When does frost risk typically end in Scandia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scandia typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Scandia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scandia typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scandia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scandia sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 3, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scandia?
The federal record around Scandia is a meaningful one — 542 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (288), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Scandia?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scandia's scale — its 4b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scandia'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 Scandia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scandia's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,305 acres it covers and 542 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scandia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scandia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 17 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 542 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scandia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scandia's boundary and the 22,305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scandia's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scandia's 22,305 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scandia's 22,305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scandia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,305 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Scandia-wide figureread your own land →
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