Antelope, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Antelope, 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 Antelope 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 Antelope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Antelope — the short answer
Antelope, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 129 acres of town.
- 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)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 129 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 Antelope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Antelope's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Antelope
Each reading below is measured for Antelope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAntelope runs about 144 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
MeasuredAntelope 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 Antelope is in
Antelope sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Antelope's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sheridan County.
What Grows in Antelope
Every plant below cleared Antelope's own zone 3b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Antelope?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Antelope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Antelope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 34N55E24AACB01Nitrate · 500 ft
- 34N55E24ACDA01Nitrate · 900 ft
- 34N55E24ACAB01Nitrate · 950 ft
- ENBRIDGE PIPELINES (ND) LLC - RESERVE STATIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 34N56E28ADBD01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 33N56E07ACDA01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 34N55E30BDAA01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 33N56E02ACAB01Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 34N56E35DDDD01 SUNDSTED 086Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 35N55E28BDDD01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 35N55E29ADBB01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 35N55E20DCBANitrate · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Antelope'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 Antelope.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Antelope
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Antelope
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Antelope, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Antelope. 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 Antelope
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 Antelope average
Your land is one point inside Antelope
Everything above resolves to Antelope as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 129 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 Antelope Average
Antelope Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Antelope
- ●One soil character for all of Antelope
- ●Frost dates read at Antelope's scale: May 7 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Antelope's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Antelope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Antelope, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Antelope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Antelope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Antelope average
How we know this about Antelope
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 Antelope’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 Antelope
When does frost risk typically end in Antelope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Antelope 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 Antelope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Antelope typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Antelope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Antelope sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 14, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Antelope?
The federal record around Antelope shows 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Antelope?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Antelope 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Antelope's scale — its 3b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Antelope'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 Antelope’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Antelope's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 129 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Antelope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Antelope's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 28 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Antelope, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Antelope's boundary and the 129 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Antelope's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Antelope's 129 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sheridan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sheridan 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 Sheridan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Antelope's 129 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Antelope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 129 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Antelope-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Growing region
Nearby growing guides