Towner, 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, epazote, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Towner, 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 Towner 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 Towner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Towner — the short answer
Towner, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 529 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 529 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 Towner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Towner's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Towner
Each reading below is measured for Towner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTowner runs about 145 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTowner 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 Towner is in
Towner sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Towner's own centroid rather than borrowed from McHenry County.
What Grows in Towner
Every plant below cleared Towner's own zone 3b and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Towner?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Towner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Towner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Winger Cheese IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Envision C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Triple A RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WINGER CHEESE INCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- Towner Public School District 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 156-076-11BBD2Nitrate · 2300 ft
- Hiway Corner ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 156-076-11BACNitrate · 2600 ft
- North Dakota State Dept of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 156-076-11BABNitrate · 0.6 mi
- Hutton Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 156-076-09ABCNitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Towner'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 Towner.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Towner
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Towner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Towner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Towner, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Towner. 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 Towner
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 Towner average
Your land is one point inside Towner
Everything above resolves to Towner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 529 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 Towner Average
Towner Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Towner
- ●One soil character for all of Towner
- ●Frost dates read at Towner's scale: May 8 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Towner's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Towner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Towner, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Towner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Towner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Towner average
How we know this about Towner
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 Towner’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 Towner
When does frost risk typically end in Towner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Towner typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Towner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Towner typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Towner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Towner sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 16, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Towner?
The federal record around Towner shows 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Towner?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Towner rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Towner's scale — its 3b band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Towner'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 Towner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Towner's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 529 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Towner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Towner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 30 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Towner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Towner's boundary and the 529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Towner's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Towner's 529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McHenry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McHenry 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 McHenry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Towner's 529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Towner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Towner-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaTowner sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides