Shafer, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Shafer, 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 Shafer 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 Shafer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shafer — the short answer
Shafer, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 813 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 813 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 Shafer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shafer's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shafer
Each reading below is measured for Shafer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShafer runs about 172 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
MeasuredShafer 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 Shafer is in
Shafer sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shafer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chisago County.
What Grows in Shafer
Every plant below cleared Shafer's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shafer?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Shafer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shafer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHAFER ELECTRONICS COToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- SHAFER ELECTRONICS COBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SHAFER CONTRACTING CO INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Shafer Contracting Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Familee Fuels LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JIM'S COUNTRY TRANNYSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SHAFER CITY OFBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 681464Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 481331Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- CHISAGO COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- HAZELDEN BETTY FORD FOUNDATIONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Hazelden Betty Ford FoundationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shafer'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 Shafer.
Total Sites
374
within ~10 miles of Shafer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shafer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shafer
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Shafer
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 Shafer average
Your land is one point inside Shafer
Everything above resolves to Shafer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 813 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 Shafer Average
Shafer Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Shafer
- ●One soil character for all of Shafer
- ●Frost dates read at Shafer's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shafer's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shafer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shafer, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shafer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shafer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shafer average
How we know this about Shafer
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 Shafer’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 Shafer
When does frost risk typically end in Shafer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shafer typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Shafer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shafer typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shafer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shafer sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 1, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shafer?
The federal record around Shafer is a meaningful one — 374 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (139), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 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 Shafer?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shafer's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shafer'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 Shafer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shafer's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 813 acres it covers and 374 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shafer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shafer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 15 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 374 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shafer, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shafer's boundary and the 813 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shafer'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 Shafer's 813 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chisago County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chisago 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 Chisago County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shafer's 813 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shafer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 813 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 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 Shafer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaShafer sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides