Dawson, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dawson, 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 Dawson 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 Dawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dawson — the short answer
Dawson, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 218 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 218 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 4a is Dawson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dawson's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dawson
Each reading below is measured for Dawson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDawson runs about 159 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDawson sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Dawson is in
Dawson sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dawson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kidder County.
What Grows in Dawson
Every plant below cleared Dawson's own zone 4a and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dawson?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Dawson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dawson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dawson Grocery and GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Dawson ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 139-072-03DDDNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 139-072-08DBNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 140-072-35DDD1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 140-072-35DDD2Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 140-072-28DDD2Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 140-072-28DDD1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 139-072-27CBNitrate · 2.9 mi
- 140-072-25CCCNitrate · 3.2 mi
- 139-071-06BDNitrate · 3.2 mi
- Allen Krueger FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dawson'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 Dawson.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Dawson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
142 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dawson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dawson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 142 sites within ~10 miles of Dawson. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Dawson
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 Dawson average
Your land is one point inside Dawson
Everything above resolves to Dawson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 218 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 Dawson Average
Dawson Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Dawson
- ●One soil character for all of Dawson
- ●Frost dates read at Dawson's scale: May 3 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dawson's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dawson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dawson, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dawson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dawson average
How we know this about Dawson
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 Dawson’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 Dawson
When does frost risk typically end in Dawson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Dawson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dawson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dawson sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 25, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dawson?
The federal record around Dawson shows 156 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (142), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Dawson?
From about Sep 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dawson's scale — its 4a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dawson'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 Dawson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dawson's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 218 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dawson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dawson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 9 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dawson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dawson's boundary and the 218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dawson's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dawson's 218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kidder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kidder 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 Kidder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dawson's 218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dawson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Dawson-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaDawson sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.