Twin Cities Metro spans USDA hardiness zones 4b-5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
One metro, two frost calendars. The Minneapolis-St. Paul urban core sits in zone 5a while its outer suburbs and exurbs — Anoka, Carver, and Scott — drop to 4b, a real half-zone spread that stretches the frost-free season by more than two weeks across the seven counties (roughly 181 days in the exurbs to 199 in the city). Which side of that line your parcel falls on matters more here than any statewide answer. Crops well matched to these conditions include tomato, honeycrisp apple, red pine, and wild rice — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Twin Cities Metro spans Minnesota.
Your yard isn't all of Twin Cities Metro.
Twin Cities Metro spans USDA zones 4b-5a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Twin Cities Metro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Twin Cities Metro — the short answer
Twin Cities Metro: USDA zones 4b-5a, 181–199 frost-free days, in Minnesota.
- USDA zones
- 4b-5a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 181–199 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 7
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in Twin Cities Metro
Plants matched to Twin Cities Metro's USDA zones 4b-5a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of Twin Cities Metro
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets Twin Cities Metro’s USDA zones 4b-5a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across Twin Cities Metro
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across seven member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Mollisols, at 40% of mapped acres, followed by Alfisols (34%), Entisols (15%) and Histosols (11%). Five soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Lester, Zimmerman, and Kingsley.
33% of those acres are well drained, and another 14% very poorly drained, 9% poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 5.8–7.0 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 25% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
5.8–7.0
Hydric soils
26%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Anoka County holds the most wetland ground here, at 40% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in Twin Cities Metro
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across Twin Cities Metro. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records33% of the mapped acres across Twin Cities Metro are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all seven of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across Twin Cities Metro runs pH 5.8–7.0 — near neutral in six of its seven counties.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
From county recordsAbout 26% of the ground across Twin Cities Metro is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil. Anoka County carries the most, at 40%.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Twin Cities Metro — and how to grow with it.
Across Twin Cities Metro's 7 counties the federal record holds 26,697 documented sites, mostly Brownfields (18,699), Underground Storage Tanks (4,967) and Nitrate (2,084). The heaviest single county is Hennepin County, with 10,979.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to Twin Cities Metro to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 7 counties in Twin Cities Metro
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Twin Cities Metro, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 18,699 sites across the 7 counties in Twin Cities Metro. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside Twin Cities Metro
Everything above resolves to Twin Cities Metro as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 4b-5a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs Twin Cities Metro Average
Twin Cities Metro Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b-5a, averaged across Twin Cities Metro
- ●One soil character for all of Twin Cities Metro
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Twin Cities Metro's 4b-5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Twin Cities Metro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Twin Cities Metro — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Twin Cities Metro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Twin Cities Metro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not Twin Cities Metro average
How we know this about Twin Cities Metro
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about Twin Cities Metro
What hardiness zone is Twin Cities Metro?
Twin Cities Metro spans USDA hardiness zones 4b-5a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in Twin Cities Metro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Twin Cities Metro's counties mostly run 186 to 192 frost-free days, median 189 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 7 member counties). That 6-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 7 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in Twin Cities Metro?
Across Twin Cities Metro, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Apr 14 and Apr 18 (median Apr 17), and their first fall freeze between Oct 20 and Oct 24. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about May 8, and elevation decides which end of a 4-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in Twin Cities Metro?
Twin Cities Metro's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Honeycrisp Apple, Red Pine, Wild Rice. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is Twin Cities Metro defined?
Twin Cities Metro is defined here as a curated cluster of 7 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does Twin Cities Metro cover?
Twin Cities Metro spans Minnesota. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Driftless Area, Red River Valley, and North Shore (Lake Superior) share at least one state with Twin Cities Metro. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at Twin Cities Metro’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Twin Cities Metro's own scale — the zone 4b-5a band across its footprint, a median 189-day season across its 7 counties and 26,697 documented federal contamination records across its 7 counties, 10,979 of them in Hennepin County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 4b-5a aggregated across all 7 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 7 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 7 counties run 186 to 192 frost-free days, median 189NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 26,697 documented federal contamination records across its 7 counties, 10,979 of them in Hennepin County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 40% Mollisols, topsoil pH 5.8–7.0, area-weighted across its 7 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 4b-5afrom Minnesota
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 6-day range your ground sits at — 186 days at one extreme, 192 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore Twin Cities Metro
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Minnesota
An unglaciated landscape of steep ridges, deep valleys, and spring-fed coulees in the Upper Midwest — a stronghold of diversified small farms and cold-hardy fruit.
The flat floor of glacial Lake Agassiz along the Red River of the North — deep, dark lakebed clays and one of the coldest, shortest northern seasons on the platform (USDA zones 3b-4b) behind classic sugar-beet, potato, and spring-wheat country.
Superior's deep water squeezes a 4a-4b shoreline band out of Duluth-to-Grand-Marais country whose interior reads 3b — later falls, safer springs, and the moderated edge that makes North Shore orchards and gardens possible.