St. James, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in St. James, 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 St. James 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 St. James — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. James — the short answer
St. James, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- 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 5a is St. James's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. James's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. James
Each reading below is measured for St. James itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. James runs about 182 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
MeasuredSt. James 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 St. James is in
St. James sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at St. James's own centroid rather than borrowed from Watonwan County.
What Grows in St. James
Every plant below cleared St. James's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. James?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 16 — 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 St. James
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. James. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTRAL FARM SERVICE CARDTROLBrownfields · 100 ft
- Greig Oil 1st AveUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- J & J WASTE OIL INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- Watonwan County CourthouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 106N31W07DBC 01Nitrate · 750 ft
- ROADWAY CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- SAINT JAMES PUBLISHING COBrownfields · 900 ft
- Caseys General Store #3000Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ST. JAMES CLEANERSBrownfields · 950 ft
- SAINT JAMES CITY OF - ARMSTROBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ST JAMES BUS SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TONY DOWNS FOODS COBrownfields · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. James'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 St. James.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of St. James
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. James
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. James
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. James, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of St. James — CAFO (23 sites) and Nitrate (48 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 St. James
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 St. James average
Your land is one point inside St. James
Everything above resolves to St. James 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 St. James Average
St. James Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across St. James
- ●One soil character for all of St. James
- ●Frost dates read at St. James's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. James's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. James
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. James, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. James averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. James — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. James average
How we know this about St. James
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 St. James’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 St. James
When does frost risk typically end in St. James?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. James 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 St. James?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. James typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. James?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. James sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 2, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. James?
The federal record around St. James is a meaningful one — 166 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (50), the nearest Brownfields 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 St. James?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. James's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. James'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 St. James’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at St. James's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,565 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. James's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. James's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 16 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. James, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. James's boundary and the 1,565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. James'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 St. James's 1,565 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Watonwan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Watonwan 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 Watonwan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. James's 1,565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. James you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,565 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 St. James-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaSt. James sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides