Long Creek, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Long Creek, 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 Long Creek 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 Long Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Long Creek — the short answer
Long Creek, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 151 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 151 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 Long Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Creek's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Creek
Each reading below is measured for Long Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Creek runs about 152 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
MeasuredLong Creek 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 Long Creek is in
Long Creek sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Long Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Williams County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Long Creek
Every plant below cleared Long Creek's own zone 4a and its 152-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Long Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ND Parks and Recreation DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 153-097-16AAANitrate · 4.9 mi
- 153-097-15CCCNitrate · 5.3 mi
- 153-098-33DCANitrate · 5.3 mi
- 153-097-22ABBNitrate · 5.8 mi
- 153-097-22AAANitrate · 6.2 mi
- 153-097-02CDDNitrate · 6.2 mi
- 154-097-35DCBNitrate · 6.4 mi
- 153-097-23BBANitrate · 6.4 mi
- 152-099-03ACBNitrate · 6.7 mi
- 153-097-01CBDNitrate · 6.9 mi
- 154-099-34BCBNitrate · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Creek'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 Long Creek.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Long Creek
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
60 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Long Creek. 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 Long Creek
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 Long Creek average
Your land is one point inside Long Creek
Everything above resolves to Long Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 151 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 Long Creek Average
Long Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Long Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Long Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Long Creek's scale: May 5 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Creek's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Creek, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Creek average
How we know this about Long Creek
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 Long Creek’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 Long Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Long Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Creek typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Long Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Creek typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 152 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Creek sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 20, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Creek?
The federal record around Long Creek shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Long Creek?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Long Creek's scale — its 4a band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Creek'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 Long Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Long Creek's own scale — its own ~152-day season between 28°F freezes, the 151 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 4 and the ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Creek's boundary and the 151 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Long Creek sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Creek's 151 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williams 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 Williams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Long Creek's 151 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 151 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Long Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides