Williams, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Williams, 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 Williams 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 Williams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Williams — the short answer
Williams, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 625 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 625 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 3b is Williams's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Williams's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Williams
Each reading below is measured for Williams itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilliams runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWilliams sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Williams is in
Williams sits in the Northern Minnesota Wetlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Williams's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake of the Woods County.
What Grows in Williams
Every plant below cleared Williams's own zone 3b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Williams?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Williams
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Williams. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lake Of The Woods County ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Dept Of Natural Resources - ForestryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ROOSEVELT RADIO TOWERBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- Percys PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Dnr Zippel Bay SpUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Cenex Soil Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Former Stodgel Oil Roosevelt CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Andys Garage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Northern Farmers Coop ExchangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Red Lake Wildlife Management AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- LAKE OF THE WOODS COUNTY RECOBrownfields · 9.0 mi
- Randalls ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
Measured from Williams'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 Williams.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Williams
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Williams
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 Williams average
Your land is one point inside Williams
Everything above resolves to Williams as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 625 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 Williams Average
Williams Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Williams
- ●One soil character for all of Williams
- ●Frost dates read at Williams's scale: May 10 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Williams's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Williams
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Williams, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Williams averages can't show:
We read public map data around Williams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Williams average
How we know this about Williams
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 Williams’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 Williams
When does frost risk typically end in Williams?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Williams typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Williams?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Williams typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Williams?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Williams sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 21, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Williams?
The federal record around Williams is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Williams?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Williams rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Williams's scale — its 3b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Williams'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 Williams’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Williams's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 625 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Williams's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Williams's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 5 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Williams, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Williams's boundary and the 625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Williams's own centroid, the Northern Minnesota WetlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Williams's 625 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake of the Woods County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Williams's 625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Williams you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 625 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Williams-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaWilliams sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides