Taylors Falls, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Taylors Falls, 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 Taylors Falls 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 Taylors Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Taylors Falls — the short answer
Taylors Falls, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Taylors Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Taylors Falls's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Taylors Falls
Each reading below is measured for Taylors Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTaylors Falls runs about 169 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
MeasuredTaylors Falls 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 Taylors Falls is in
Taylors Falls sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Taylors Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chisago County.
What Grows in Taylors Falls
Every plant below cleared Taylors Falls's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Taylors Falls?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Taylors Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Taylors Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 687176Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- INTERSTATE STATE PARKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Old CreameryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Casey's General Store #3661Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TAYLORS FALLS DENTAL CLINICBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Jor-Gas IUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HOLIDAY STATION #192Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- Holiday Stationstore #192Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FALLS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- US POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FORMER OSCEOLA OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ST CROIX REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Taylors Falls'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 Taylors Falls.
Total Sites
338
within ~10 miles of Taylors Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Taylors Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Taylors Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Taylors Falls
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 Taylors Falls average
Your land is one point inside Taylors Falls
Everything above resolves to Taylors Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Taylors Falls Average
Taylors Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Taylors Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Taylors Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Taylors Falls's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Taylors Falls's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Taylors Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Taylors Falls, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Taylors Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Taylors Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Taylors Falls average
How we know this about Taylors Falls
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 Taylors Falls’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 Taylors Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Taylors Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Taylors Falls typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Taylors Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Taylors Falls typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Taylors Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Taylors Falls sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 1, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Taylors Falls?
The federal record around Taylors Falls is a meaningful one — 338 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles 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 Taylors Falls?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Taylors Falls's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Taylors Falls'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 Taylors Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Taylors Falls's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,550 acres it covers and 338 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Taylors Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Taylors Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 15 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 338 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Taylors Falls, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Taylors Falls's boundary and the 2,550 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Taylors Falls's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Taylors Falls's 2,550 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chisago County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chisago 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 Chisago County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Taylors Falls's 2,550 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Taylors Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,550 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Taylors Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaTaylors Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides