The Ranch, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 The Ranch, 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 The Ranch 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 The Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
The Ranch — the short answer
The Ranch, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 198 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 198 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 4a is The Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Ranch's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Ranch
Each reading below is measured for The Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThe Ranch runs about 161 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
MeasuredThe Ranch sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 The Ranch is in
The Ranch sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at The Ranch's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mahnomen County is mostly Lake Agassiz Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in The Ranch
Every plant below cleared The Ranch's own zone 4a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Ranch?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near The Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roy Lake StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 145N39W16DAD 01 E GitzNitrate · 5.0 mi
- NAYTAHWAUSH COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOLBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- 145N40W15CDA 01 A ScheffNitrate · 5.2 mi
- MM08 144N39W02AAABBD01 0000124504Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- Jacks Motor SportUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Roy Lake LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Dept Of Natural Resources/forestryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Minnesota Dept Of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- The Garage Auto CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Eids 59 Midway ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Pump 24 C-storeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Ranch'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 The Ranch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Ranch, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of The Ranch. 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 The Ranch
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 Ranch average
Your land is one point inside The Ranch
Everything above resolves to The Ranch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 198 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 town 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 The Ranch Average
The Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across The Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of The Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at The Ranch's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Ranch's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Ranch, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ranch average
How we know this about The Ranch
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at The Ranch’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 The Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in The Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Ranch typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in The Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Ranch typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Ranch sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 24, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Ranch?
The federal record around The Ranch is light — 26 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.5 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 The Ranch?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Ranch's scale — its 4a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Ranch'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 The Ranch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at The Ranch's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 198 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- The Ranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 8 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Ranch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Ranch's boundary and the 198 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The Ranch sits in the North Central Hardwood 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 The Ranch's 198 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mahnomen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mahnomen 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 Mahnomen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Ranch's 198 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 198 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.5 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 The Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaThe Ranch sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides