Amsterdam, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Amsterdam, 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 Amsterdam 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 Amsterdam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Amsterdam — the short answer
Amsterdam, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- 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
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5a is Amsterdam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amsterdam's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Amsterdam's own 30-year record measures about 153 days between 28°F killing freezes — 39 days longer than Gallatin County's ~114. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Amsterdam's ~153-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Amsterdam
Each reading below is measured for Amsterdam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmsterdam runs about 153 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
MeasuredAmsterdam sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Amsterdam is in
Amsterdam sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Amsterdam's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gallatin County.
What Grows in Amsterdam
Every plant below cleared Amsterdam's own zone 5a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Amsterdam?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (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 Amsterdam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Amsterdam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01S03E16AA 01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- CARL VANDER MOLENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- RESSLER MOTOR COMPANY DBA DANHOF MOTORSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- DANHOF CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AMSTERDAM LUMBER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CHURCHILL EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- CHURCHILL EQUIP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MANHATTAN CHRISTIAN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DANIEL KIMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- KIMM SEED POTATOESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DAIRYLAND FARMS INC - CAFO PERMITCAFO · 2.6 mi
- 01S03E36BCCD01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amsterdam'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 Amsterdam.
Total Sites
292
within ~10 miles of Amsterdam
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Amsterdam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Amsterdam
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amsterdam, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Amsterdam — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (160 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Amsterdam
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 Amsterdam average
Your land is one point inside Amsterdam
Everything above resolves to Amsterdam as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Amsterdam Average
Amsterdam Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Amsterdam
- ●One soil character for all of Amsterdam
- ●Frost dates read at Amsterdam's scale: May 4 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amsterdam's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Amsterdam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amsterdam, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amsterdam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amsterdam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amsterdam average
How we know this about Amsterdam
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 Amsterdam’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 Amsterdam
When does frost risk typically end in Amsterdam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amsterdam typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Amsterdam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Amsterdam 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 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Amsterdam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amsterdam sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 20, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amsterdam?
The federal record around Amsterdam is a meaningful one — 292 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (160), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Amsterdam?
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 Amsterdam's scale — its 5a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amsterdam'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 Amsterdam’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Amsterdam's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,732 acres it covers and 292 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amsterdam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amsterdam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 4 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 292 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Amsterdam, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Amsterdam's boundary and the 1,732 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Amsterdam's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Amsterdam's 1,732 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gallatin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gallatin County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Gallatin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amsterdam's 1,732 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Amsterdam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,732 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Amsterdam-wide figureread your own land →
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