Walters, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Walters, 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 Walters 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 Walters — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Walters — the short answer
Walters, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 127 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 127 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 Walters's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walters's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walters
Each reading below is measured for Walters itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWalters 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
MeasuredWalters 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 Walters is in
Walters sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Walters's own centroid rather than borrowed from Faribault County.
What Grows in Walters
Every plant below cleared Walters'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 Walters?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Walters
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walters. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 102N24W26DCA 01 Walters Cit 0000241138Nitrate · 350 ft
- KROHNBERG GARAGEBrownfields · 700 ft
- Sime IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- OBERMEYER FARMSCAFO · 0.9 mi
- 001N24W01CCD 01 O MEYERNitrate · 2.2 mi
- DANIEL KLUENDER 11-004-1441CAFO · 2.2 mi
- PLEASANT VIEW HOGSCAFO · 3.3 mi
- 166677Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 101N23W09BBD 01 Don OlsonNitrate · 4.2 mi
- Tanks & TummiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Food N Fuel C43Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- City GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walters'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 Walters.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Walters
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walters
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walters
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walters, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Walters. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Walters
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 Walters average
Your land is one point inside Walters
Everything above resolves to Walters as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127 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 Walters Average
Walters Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Walters
- ●One soil character for all of Walters
- ●Frost dates read at Walters's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walters's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walters
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walters, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walters averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walters — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walters average
How we know this about Walters
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 Walters’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 Walters
When does frost risk typically end in Walters?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walters typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Walters?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walters typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walters?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walters sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 3, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walters?
The federal record around Walters shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Walters?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Walters's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walters'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 Walters’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Walters's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 127 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walters's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walters's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walters, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walters's boundary and the 127 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 Walters'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 Walters's 127 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Faribault County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Faribault 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 Faribault County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walters's 127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walters you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 127 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Walters-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaWalters sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.