Augusta, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Augusta, 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 Augusta 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 Augusta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Augusta — the short answer
Augusta, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 590 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 590 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 4b is Augusta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Augusta's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Augusta's own 30-year record measures about 159 days between 28°F killing freezes — 35 days longer than Lewis and Clark County's ~124. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Augusta's ~159-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 Augusta
Each reading below is measured for Augusta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAugusta runs about 159 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
MeasuredAugusta sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Augusta is in
Augusta sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Augusta's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lewis and Clark County is mostly Middle Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Augusta
Every plant below cleared Augusta's own zone 4b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Augusta?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Augusta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Augusta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AUGUSTA CONOCO USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- LEWIS & CLARK COUNTY SHOP AUGUSTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- US POST OFFICE AUGUSTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AUGUSTA GAS STATION LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TEE BAR RANCH COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MAIN LINE COMPRESSOR 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WAGONS WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ELK CREEK COLONYCAFO · 3.7 mi
- WRIGHT LARRY J & LINDA AUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB F 5Underground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
Measured from Augusta'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 Augusta.
Total Sites
10
within ~10 miles of Augusta
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Augusta
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Augusta
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 Augusta average
Your land is one point inside Augusta
Everything above resolves to Augusta 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 Augusta Average
Augusta Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Augusta
- ●One soil character for all of Augusta
- ●Frost dates read at Augusta's scale: May 3 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Augusta's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Augusta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Augusta, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Augusta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Augusta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Augusta average
How we know this about Augusta
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 Augusta’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 Augusta
When does frost risk typically end in Augusta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Augusta typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Augusta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Augusta typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Augusta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Augusta sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 25, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Augusta?
The federal record around Augusta is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Augusta?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Augusta's scale — its 4b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Augusta'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 Augusta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Augusta's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 590 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Augusta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Augusta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 9 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Augusta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Augusta's boundary and the 590 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Augusta sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Augusta's 590 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis and Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis and Clark 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 Lewis and Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Augusta's 590 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Augusta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 590 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 Augusta-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaAugusta sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides