Vineland, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vineland, 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 Vineland 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 Vineland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vineland — the short answer
Vineland, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Vineland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vineland's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vineland
Each reading below is measured for Vineland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVineland runs about 166 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
MeasuredVineland 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 Vineland is in
Vineland sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Vineland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mille Lacs County.
What Grows in Vineland
Every plant below cleared Vineland's own zone 4a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vineland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 12 — 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 Vineland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vineland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 043N27W28BCB 01 0000497672Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- ML WASTEWATER INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- GRAND CASINO MILLE LACSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Cashs StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MILLE LACS BAND OF OJIBWE FISHERIESBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Mille Lacs Band Of ChippewaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 043N27W19BCB 01 0000135205Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 042N27W03BCBDBC01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Wigwam InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Mille Lacs Golf CourseUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 042N27W08CDB 02Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Mille Lacs Golf Resort, MW-3Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vineland'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 Vineland.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Vineland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vineland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vineland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vineland, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Vineland. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Vineland
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 Vineland average
Your land is one point inside Vineland
Everything above resolves to Vineland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Vineland Average
Vineland Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Vineland
- ●One soil character for all of Vineland
- ●Frost dates read at Vineland's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vineland's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vineland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vineland, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vineland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vineland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vineland average
How we know this about Vineland
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 Vineland’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 Vineland
When does frost risk typically end in Vineland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vineland 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 Vineland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vineland typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vineland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vineland sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 28, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vineland?
The federal record around Vineland shows 123 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles 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 Vineland?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vineland's scale — its 4a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vineland'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 Vineland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vineland's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,967 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vineland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vineland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 12 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vineland, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vineland's boundary and the 5,967 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vineland's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vineland's 5,967 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mille Lacs County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mille Lacs 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 Mille Lacs County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vineland's 5,967 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vineland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,967 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Vineland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaVineland sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.