Sherburn, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sherburn, 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 Sherburn 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 Sherburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sherburn — the short answer
Sherburn, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 588 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- 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
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 588 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 5a is Sherburn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sherburn's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sherburn
Each reading below is measured for Sherburn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSherburn runs about 183 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
MeasuredSherburn sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Sherburn is in
Sherburn sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sherburn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Martin County.
What Grows in Sherburn
Every plant below cleared Sherburn's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sherburn?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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. 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 Sherburn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sherburn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 102N32W07BDB 02 Sherburn 0000217092Nitrate · 250 ft
- ROBERT SCHUNEMANBrownfields · 550 ft
- MAYO CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM - SHERBURNBrownfields · 600 ft
- Caseys General Store #2999Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ZENDER AUTO BODYBrownfields · 750 ft
- J&H EXPRESS INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- MONTGOMERY AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Montgomery Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Nuway Cooperative ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MARTIN COUNTY WEST HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- NUWAY COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MNDOT District 7b - SherburnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sherburn'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 Sherburn.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Sherburn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sherburn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sherburn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sherburn, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Sherburn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Sherburn
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 Sherburn average
Your land is one point inside Sherburn
Everything above resolves to Sherburn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 588 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 Sherburn Average
Sherburn Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Sherburn
- ●One soil character for all of Sherburn
- ●Frost dates read at Sherburn's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sherburn's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sherburn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sherburn, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sherburn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sherburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sherburn average
How we know this about Sherburn
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 Sherburn’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 Sherburn
When does frost risk typically end in Sherburn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sherburn typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Sherburn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sherburn 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 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sherburn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sherburn sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 3, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sherburn?
The federal record around Sherburn is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Sherburn?
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 Sherburn's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sherburn'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 Sherburn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sherburn's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 588 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sherburn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sherburn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 17 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sherburn, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sherburn's boundary and the 588 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sherburn's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sherburn's 588 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Martin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Martin 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 Martin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sherburn's 588 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sherburn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 588 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Sherburn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaSherburn sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.