West St. Paul, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in West St. Paul, 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 West St. Paul 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 West St. Paul — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West St. Paul — the short answer
West St. Paul, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 5a is West St. Paul's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West St. Paul's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West St. Paul
Each reading below is measured for West St. Paul itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest St. Paul runs about 197 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
MeasuredWest St. Paul 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 West St. Paul is in
West St. Paul sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West St. Paul's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dakota County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in West St. Paul
Every plant below cleared West St. Paul's own zone 5a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West St. Paul?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 West St. Paul
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West St. Paul. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARPER ROBERT DRBrownfields · 700 ft
- WALKER AT WESTWOOD RIDGEBrownfields · 850 ft
- GOODWILL WEST SAINT PAULBrownfields · 1100 ft
- PACE PEDIATRICS - W ST PAULBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CLEAR LAKES DENTALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 3313Brownfields · 1200 ft
- MIDAS MUFFLER - ROBERT STBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MENARDS - WEST ST PAULBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MIKE LOTHE PAINTING/DECORATINGBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LIFELONG DENTAL CAREBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JOHNSTON WILLIAM DENTAL OFFICEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- HANSEN RICHARD J DPMBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West St. Paul'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 West St. Paul.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West St. Paul
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West St. Paul
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West St. Paul, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 5,497 sites within ~10 miles of West St. Paul. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in West St. Paul
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 West St. Paul average
Your land is one point inside West St. Paul
Everything above resolves to West St. Paul 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 West St. Paul Average
West St. Paul Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across West St. Paul
- ●One soil character for all of West St. Paul
- ●Frost dates read at West St. Paul's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West St. Paul's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West St. Paul
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West St. Paul, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West St. Paul averages can't show:
We read public map data around West St. Paul — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West St. Paul average
How we know this about West St. Paul
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 West St. Paul’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 West St. Paul
When does frost risk typically end in West St. Paul?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West St. Paul typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in West St. Paul?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West St. Paul typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West St. Paul?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West St. Paul sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 11, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West St. Paul?
The federal record around West St. Paul runs heavier than most — 7,679 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,497), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in West St. Paul?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West St. Paul's scale — its 5a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West St. Paul'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 West St. Paul’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at West St. Paul's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,141 acres it covers and 7,679 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West St. Paul's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- West St. Paul's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 25 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,679 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West St. Paul, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West St. Paul's boundary and the 3,141 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- West St. Paul 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 West St. Paul's 3,141 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dakota 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 Dakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West St. Paul's 3,141 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West St. Paul you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,141 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 West St. Paul-wide figureread your own land →
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