Great Bend, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Great Bend, 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 Great Bend 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 Great Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Great Bend — the short answer
Great Bend, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 359 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 359 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 Great Bend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Great Bend's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Great Bend
Each reading below is measured for Great Bend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreat Bend runs about 171 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
MeasuredGreat Bend 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 Great Bend is in
Great Bend sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Great Bend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richland County.
What Grows in Great Bend
Every plant below cleared Great Bend's own zone 4a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Great Bend?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Great Bend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Great Bend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fieldcrest FertilizerUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 131-049-34ABANitrate · 2.2 mi
- 131-049-05BBBNitrate · 4.1 mi
- 130-049-01DDBNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 131-048-28AAANitrate · 5.0 mi
- 132-048-29BCBNitrate · 5.5 mi
- 130-048-08AABNitrate · 5.6 mi
- GUARDIAN ENERGY HANKINSONToxics Release Inventory · 6.9 mi
- GUARDIAN ENERGY HANKINSONBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- 130-050-03AAB1Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- Machinery Management ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- 131-050-21DACNitrate · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Great Bend'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 Great Bend.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Great Bend
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Great Bend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Great Bend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Great Bend, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Great Bend — Nitrate (30 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Great Bend
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 Great Bend average
Your land is one point inside Great Bend
Everything above resolves to Great Bend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 359 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 Great Bend Average
Great Bend Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Great Bend
- ●One soil character for all of Great Bend
- ●Frost dates read at Great Bend's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Great Bend's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Great Bend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Great Bend, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Great Bend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Great Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Great Bend average
How we know this about Great Bend
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 Great Bend’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 Great Bend
When does frost risk typically end in Great Bend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Great Bend typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Great Bend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Great Bend typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Great Bend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Great Bend sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 27, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Great Bend?
The federal record around Great Bend shows 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), 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 Great Bend?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Great Bend's scale — its 4a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Great Bend'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 Great Bend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Great Bend's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 359 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Great Bend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Great Bend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 11 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Great Bend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Great Bend's boundary and the 359 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Great Bend's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Great Bend's 359 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richland 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 Richland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Great Bend's 359 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Great Bend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 359 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 Great Bend-wide figureread your own land →
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