Westport, 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.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Westport, 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 Westport 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 Westport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westport — the short answer
Westport, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 169 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 169 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 Westport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westport's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westport
Each reading below is measured for Westport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestport runs about 178 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
MeasuredWestport 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 Westport is in
Westport sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Westport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pope County.
What Grows in Westport
Every plant below cleared Westport's own zone 4b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westport?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Westport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUSTOM SANDBLASTING & PAINTINBrownfields · 550 ft
- E726 126N36W23BAC 05 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 1500 ft
- D726 126N36W23BAC 04 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 1600 ft
- D926 126N36W23BAC 08 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 1800 ft
- Y726 126N36W BAC 03 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 1800 ft
- Y926 126N36W23BAC 07 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 1900 ft
- C726 126N36W23BAC 02 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 2000 ft
- C926 126N36W23BAC 06 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 2000 ft
- Z726 126N36W23BBD 04 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 2100 ft
- Z926 126N36W23BBD 06 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 2200 ft
- B726 126N36W23BBD 03 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 2200 ft
- B926 126N36W23BBD 05 Rosholt-WestportNitrate · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westport'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 Westport.
Total Sites
152
within ~10 miles of Westport
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Westport — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (86 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Westport
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 Westport average
Your land is one point inside Westport
Everything above resolves to Westport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 169 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 Westport Average
Westport Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Westport
- ●One soil character for all of Westport
- ●Frost dates read at Westport's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westport's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westport, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westport average
How we know this about Westport
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 Westport’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 Westport
When does frost risk typically end in Westport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westport typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Westport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westport 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westport sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 3, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westport?
The federal record around Westport shows 152 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (86), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Westport?
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 Westport's scale — its 4b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westport'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 Westport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Westport's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 169 acres it covers and 152 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 17 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westport, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westport's boundary and the 169 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Westport'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 Westport's 169 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pope County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pope 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 Pope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Westport's 169 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 169 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 Westport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaWestport sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides