Belcourt, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Belcourt, 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 Belcourt 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 Belcourt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Belcourt — the short answer
Belcourt, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Belcourt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belcourt's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belcourt
Each reading below is measured for Belcourt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelcourt runs about 149 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
MeasuredBelcourt 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 Belcourt is in
Belcourt sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Belcourt's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rolette County.
What Grows in Belcourt
Every plant below cleared Belcourt's own zone 3b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belcourt?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — 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 Belcourt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belcourt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Law Enforcement (BIA)Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Facility Management (BIA)Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BIA Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BIA Roads Shop - BelcourtUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Utter StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BriensUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 162-070-20DBANitrate · 1900 ft
- LadotsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Harris Oil and PropaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Alfrand LaFountainUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Belcourt Eastside ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belcourt'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 Belcourt.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Belcourt
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belcourt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belcourt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belcourt, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Belcourt. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Belcourt
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 Belcourt average
Your land is one point inside Belcourt
Everything above resolves to Belcourt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Belcourt Average
Belcourt Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Belcourt
- ●One soil character for all of Belcourt
- ●Frost dates read at Belcourt's scale: May 7 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belcourt's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belcourt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belcourt, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belcourt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belcourt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belcourt average
How we know this about Belcourt
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 Belcourt’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 Belcourt
When does frost risk typically end in Belcourt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belcourt typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Belcourt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belcourt typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belcourt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belcourt sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 19, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belcourt?
The federal record around Belcourt shows 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Belcourt?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Belcourt 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Belcourt's scale — its 3b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belcourt'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 Belcourt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belcourt's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,718 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belcourt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belcourt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 3 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belcourt, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belcourt's boundary and the 3,718 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belcourt's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belcourt's 3,718 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rolette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rolette County
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Rolette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belcourt's 3,718 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belcourt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,718 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Belcourt-wide figureread your own land →
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