Bottineau, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bottineau, 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 Bottineau 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 Bottineau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bottineau — the short answer
Bottineau, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 842 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 842 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 Bottineau's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bottineau's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bottineau
Each reading below is measured for Bottineau itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBottineau runs about 146 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
MeasuredBottineau 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 Bottineau is in
Bottineau sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bottineau's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bottineau County.
What Grows in Bottineau
Every plant below cleared Bottineau's own zone 3b and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bottineau?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — 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 Bottineau
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bottineau. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Oak Creek Service NorthUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WernersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Bottineau Public School District 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- D & B BODY SHOP INC.Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Farmers Union Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Gustafson OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Cenex of BottineauUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Moums TesoroUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #1792Brownfields · 2300 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #4569Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Dakota College At BottineauUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Olsons Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bottineau'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 Bottineau.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bottineau
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bottineau
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bottineau, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Bottineau. 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 Bottineau
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 Bottineau average
Your land is one point inside Bottineau
Everything above resolves to Bottineau as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 842 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 Bottineau Average
Bottineau Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Bottineau
- ●One soil character for all of Bottineau
- ●Frost dates read at Bottineau's scale: May 6 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bottineau's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bottineau
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bottineau, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bottineau averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bottineau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bottineau average
How we know this about Bottineau
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 Bottineau’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 Bottineau
When does frost risk typically end in Bottineau?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bottineau typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Bottineau?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bottineau typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bottineau?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bottineau sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 15, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bottineau?
The federal record around Bottineau shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Bottineau?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bottineau 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 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bottineau's scale — its 3b band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bottineau'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 Bottineau’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bottineau's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 842 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bottineau's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bottineau's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Sep 29 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bottineau, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bottineau's boundary and the 842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bottineau's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bottineau's 842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bottineau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bottineau 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 Bottineau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bottineau's 842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bottineau you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bottineau-wide figureread your own land →
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