Minden, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Minden, 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 Minden 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 Minden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Minden — the short answer
Minden, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Minden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minden's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minden
Each reading below is measured for Minden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinden runs about 147 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
MeasuredMinden sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Minden is in
Minden sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Minden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Minden
Every plant below cleared Minden's own zone 6b and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minden?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Minden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 105 N13 E20 29BCDD1 FRIEDA WESTNitrate · 1000 ft
- 105 N13 E20 29BDDD1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 105 N13 E20 20CBBC1 USGS CVD1-1ANitrate · 0.5 mi
- 105 N13 E20 20CBBC2 USGS CVD1-1BNitrate · 0.5 mi
- 105 N13 E20 20CBBC3 USGS CVD1-1CNitrate · 0.5 mi
- GREAT BASIN IMAGINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Carson Valley Market (Shell)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CARSON VALLEY INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 105 N13 E20 19DAAC3 USGS CVD1-2CNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 105 N13 E20 19DAAC1 USGS CVD1-2ANitrate · 0.6 mi
- 105 N13 E20 19DAAC2 USGS CVD1-2BNitrate · 0.6 mi
- Bing Gravel PitUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minden'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 Minden.
Total Sites
1,048
within ~10 miles of Minden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minden, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 810 sites within ~10 miles of Minden. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Minden
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 Minden average
Your land is one point inside Minden
Everything above resolves to Minden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 town 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 Minden Average
Minden Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Minden
- ●One soil character for all of Minden
- ●Frost dates read at Minden's scale: May 12 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minden's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minden, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minden average
How we know this about Minden
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Minden’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Minden
When does frost risk typically end in Minden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minden typically lands around May 12, 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 Jun 2.
When is the first frost in Minden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minden typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minden sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 22, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minden?
The federal record around Minden is a meaningful one — 1,048 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (810), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Minden?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Minden 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 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Minden's scale — its 6b band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minden'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 Minden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Minden's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,369 acres it covers and 1,048 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Oct 6 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,048 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minden, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minden's boundary and the 2,369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Minden's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Minden's 2,369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas County
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Minden's 2,369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Minden-wide figureread your own land →
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