Milton, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Milton, 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 Milton 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 Milton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Milton — the short answer
Milton, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 301 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 301 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 Milton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milton's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milton
Each reading below is measured for Milton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilton runs about 151 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
MeasuredMilton 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 Milton is in
Milton sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Milton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cavalier County.
What Grows in Milton
Every plant below cleared Milton's own zone 3b and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milton?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Milton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Milton Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CHS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 159-057-06AAB2Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Grand Forks Air Force BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 160-057-21CCCNitrate · 2.8 mi
- 159-058-15ADC2Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 160-058-33DDD2Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 159-058-24DDDNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 159-057-15DDDNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 159-057-29CBC2Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 160-058-21BCC1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 160-058-21BCC2Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milton'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 Milton.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Milton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Milton. 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 Milton
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 Milton average
Your land is one point inside Milton
Everything above resolves to Milton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 301 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 Milton Average
Milton Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Milton
- ●One soil character for all of Milton
- ●Frost dates read at Milton's scale: May 7 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milton's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milton, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milton average
How we know this about Milton
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 Milton’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 Milton
When does frost risk typically end in Milton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milton typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Milton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milton typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milton sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 21, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milton?
The federal record around Milton is a meaningful one — 72 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Milton?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milton's scale — its 3b band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milton'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 Milton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Milton's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 301 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 5 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milton's boundary and the 301 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Milton's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milton's 301 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cavalier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cavalier 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 Cavalier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milton's 301 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 301 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 Milton-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaMilton sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.