Strathcona, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Strathcona, 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 Strathcona 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 Strathcona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Strathcona — the short answer
Strathcona, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 317 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 317 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 Strathcona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strathcona's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strathcona
Each reading below is measured for Strathcona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStrathcona runs about 154 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
MeasuredStrathcona 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 Strathcona is in
Strathcona sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Strathcona's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Roseau County is mostly Northern Minnesota Wetlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Strathcona
Every plant below cleared Strathcona's own zone 3b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strathcona?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 5 — 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 Strathcona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strathcona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAAGE FARMSCAFO · 1.0 mi
- 159N43W22ADA 01 M GraffNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 158N43W22CDD 01 L VoecksNitrate · 4.7 mi
- Paradise Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- CENTRAL BOILER, INCBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- CENTRAL BOILER, INCToxics Release Inventory · 5.4 mi
- 159N44W27ACB 01 V FroenkeNitrate · 6.7 mi
- 443120Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 401969Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- RS24 157N43W03CCCD 01 0000430063Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- 531900Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- 157N44W21AAA 01 Ekman BrosNitrate · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strathcona'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 Strathcona.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Strathcona
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strathcona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strathcona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strathcona, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Strathcona. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Strathcona
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 Strathcona average
Your land is one point inside Strathcona
Everything above resolves to Strathcona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 317 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 Strathcona Average
Strathcona Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Strathcona
- ●One soil character for all of Strathcona
- ●Frost dates read at Strathcona's scale: May 4 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strathcona's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strathcona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strathcona, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strathcona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strathcona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strathcona average
How we know this about Strathcona
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 Strathcona’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 Strathcona
When does frost risk typically end in Strathcona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strathcona 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 Strathcona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strathcona typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strathcona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strathcona sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 21, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strathcona?
The federal record around Strathcona is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest CAFO record about 1.0 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Strathcona?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strathcona's scale — its 3b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strathcona'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 Strathcona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Strathcona's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 317 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strathcona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strathcona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 5 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strathcona, the closest CAFO record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strathcona's boundary and the 317 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Strathcona sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strathcona's 317 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roseau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roseau 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 Roseau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strathcona's 317 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strathcona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 317 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 1.0 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 Strathcona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides