McLeod, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in McLeod, 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 McLeod 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 McLeod — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McLeod — the short answer
McLeod, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 495 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 495 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 McLeod's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McLeod's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McLeod
Each reading below is measured for McLeod itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcLeod runs about 168 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
MeasuredMcLeod 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 McLeod is in
McLeod sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McLeod's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ransom County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McLeod
Every plant below cleared McLeod's own zone 4a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McLeod?
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 Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 McLeod
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McLeod. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 134-053-25BCA2Nitrate · 1800 ft
- Sveums StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Earl L WickorenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 134-052-31BBB2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 134-053-23ADCNitrate · 1.3 mi
- SD11 134N53W14DCCCCC01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 133-053-11BBB2Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 134-053-20DDDNitrate · 3.3 mi
- SD12 134N52W21CDDCDB01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 134-053-32DDD01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 134-053-12BBB2Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 134-053-12BBB1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McLeod'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 McLeod.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of McLeod
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
146 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McLeod
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McLeod
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McLeod, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 146 sites within ~10 miles of McLeod. 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 McLeod
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 McLeod average
Your land is one point inside McLeod
Everything above resolves to McLeod as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 495 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 McLeod Average
McLeod Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across McLeod
- ●One soil character for all of McLeod
- ●Frost dates read at McLeod's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McLeod's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McLeod
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McLeod, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McLeod averages can't show:
We read public map data around McLeod — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McLeod average
How we know this about McLeod
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 McLeod’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 McLeod
When does frost risk typically end in McLeod?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McLeod typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in McLeod?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McLeod typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McLeod?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McLeod sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 26, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McLeod?
The federal record around McLeod shows 149 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (146), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 McLeod?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McLeod's scale — its 4a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McLeod'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 McLeod’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McLeod's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 495 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McLeod's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McLeod's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 10 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McLeod, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McLeod's boundary and the 495 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McLeod sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McLeod's 495 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ransom County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ransom 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 Ransom County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McLeod's 495 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McLeod you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 495 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 McLeod-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaMcLeod sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.