Spring Valley, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Valley, 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 Spring Valley 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 Spring Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spring Valley — the short answer
Spring Valley, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Spring Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Valley's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Valley
Each reading below is measured for Spring Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Valley 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
MeasuredSpring Valley 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 Spring Valley is in
Spring Valley sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spring Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fillmore County.
What Grows in Spring Valley
Every plant below cleared Spring Valley'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 Spring Valley?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Spring Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fowler Oil Co AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Spring Valley Motor MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PEARL RIDGE DENTAL PLLCBrownfields · 400 ft
- MARCHANT MOTOR COBrownfields · 700 ft
- SPRING VALLEY UTILITIESBrownfields · 700 ft
- Spring Valley Public UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Moeller FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SPRING VALLEY CHEVROLET BUICKBrownfields · 950 ft
- CROELL REDI-MIX INC - SPRING VALLEYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- City Of Spring Valley Wastewater PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Spring Valley Garage/warehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Kwik Trip Store 831Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Valley'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 Spring Valley.
Total Sites
158
within ~10 miles of Spring Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Spring Valley — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (80 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Spring Valley
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 Spring Valley average
Your land is one point inside Spring Valley
Everything above resolves to Spring Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Spring Valley Average
Spring Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Spring Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Valley's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Valley's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Valley, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Valley average
How we know this about Spring Valley
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 Spring Valley’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 Spring Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Valley typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Spring Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Valley typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Valley sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 30, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Valley?
The federal record around Spring Valley shows 158 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spring Valley?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Valley's scale — its 4b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Valley'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 Spring Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Valley's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,893 acres it covers and 158 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 14 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Valley's boundary and the 1,893 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 Spring Valley's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Valley's 1,893 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 Spring Valley's 1,893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,893 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Spring Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides