Solway, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Solway, 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 Solway 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 Solway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Solway — the short answer
Solway, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 659 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 659 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 3b is Solway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Solway's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Solway
Each reading below is measured for Solway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSolway runs about 156 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
MeasuredSolway sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Solway is in
Solway sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Solway's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Beltrami County is mostly Northern Minnesota Wetlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Solway
Every plant below cleared Solway's own zone 3b and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Solway?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Solway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Solway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMLANDToxics Release Inventory · 600 ft
- JACOBSON BODY SHOPBrownfields · 700 ft
- 2 West ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- OTTER TAIL POWER CO - SOLWAY PLANTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- NORTHWOOD PANELBOARD COMPANYBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- NORTHWOOD PANELBOARD COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- FLUS-09 147N35W25BAB 01 0000243296Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- FLUS-09 147N35W25BAB 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 426609Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- BELTRAMI INDUSTRIAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- Phillips 66/selmos Highway ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Northwood Panelboard CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Solway'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 Solway.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Solway
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Solway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Solway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Solway, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Solway. 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 Solway
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 Solway average
Your land is one point inside Solway
Everything above resolves to Solway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 659 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 Solway Average
Solway Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Solway
- ●One soil character for all of Solway
- ●Frost dates read at Solway's scale: May 4 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Solway's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Solway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Solway, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Solway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Solway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Solway average
How we know this about Solway
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 Solway’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 Solway
When does frost risk typically end in Solway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Solway typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Solway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Solway typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Solway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Solway sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 23, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Solway?
The federal record around Solway shows 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Solway?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Solway's scale — its 3b band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Solway'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 Solway’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Solway's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 659 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Solway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Solway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 7 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Solway, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Solway's boundary and the 659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Solway sits in the Northern Lakes and 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 Solway's 659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beltrami County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beltrami 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 Beltrami County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Solway's 659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Solway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Solway-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaSolway sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.