Wilder, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Wilder, 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 Wilder 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 Wilder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wilder — the short answer
Wilder, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 505 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 505 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 Wilder's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilder's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilder
Each reading below is measured for Wilder itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilder runs about 177 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
MeasuredWilder 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 Wilder is in
Wilder sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wilder's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Wilder
Every plant below cleared Wilder's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilder?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Wilder
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilder. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COTTONWOOD COUNTY LECBrownfields · 2100 ft
- COTTONWOOD COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 2400 ft
- 419688Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Wilder FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Timberlake Wildlife AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ITC MIDWEST HERON LAKEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- 131522Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- Grunewald GravelUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Dept Of Natural Resources FisheriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Windom Ready MixUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Carters TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- RunningsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilder'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 Wilder.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilder
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilder
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilder, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilder — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (74 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 Wilder
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 Wilder average
Your land is one point inside Wilder
Everything above resolves to Wilder as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 505 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 Wilder Average
Wilder Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wilder
- ●One soil character for all of Wilder
- ●Frost dates read at Wilder's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilder's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilder
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilder, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilder averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilder average
How we know this about Wilder
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 Wilder’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 Wilder
When does frost risk typically end in Wilder?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilder typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Wilder?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilder typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilder?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilder sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 29, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilder?
The federal record around Wilder is a meaningful one — 165 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wilder?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilder's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilder'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 Wilder’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilder's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 505 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilder's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilder's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 13 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilder, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilder's boundary and the 505 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilder'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 Wilder's 505 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilder's 505 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilder you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 505 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Wilder-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaWilder sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides