Belgrade, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Belgrade, 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 Belgrade 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 Belgrade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belgrade — the short answer
Belgrade, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Belgrade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belgrade's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belgrade
Each reading below is measured for Belgrade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelgrade runs about 146 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
MeasuredBelgrade 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 Belgrade is in
Belgrade sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Belgrade's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gallatin County.
What Grows in Belgrade
Every plant below cleared Belgrade's own zone 4b and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belgrade?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Oct 1 — 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 Belgrade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belgrade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KWIK WAY 34Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MILLS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MILLS REPAIR COBrownfields · 750 ft
- BN BELGRADEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- QWEST COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- R L RAY RAYS SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GALLATIN FARMERS CO N PACIFICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GALLATIN FARMERS CO E MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 1869Brownfields · 1200 ft
- AGRI BASICS SEED PLANT BELGRADEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JOHNS MANVILLE INCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- 01S04E01CB 01Nitrate · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belgrade'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 Belgrade.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belgrade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belgrade
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belgrade, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Belgrade — Nitrate (266 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Belgrade
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 Belgrade average
Your land is one point inside Belgrade
Everything above resolves to Belgrade as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Belgrade Average
Belgrade Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Belgrade
- ●One soil character for all of Belgrade
- ●Frost dates read at Belgrade's scale: May 8 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belgrade's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belgrade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belgrade, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belgrade averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belgrade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belgrade average
How we know this about Belgrade
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 Belgrade’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 Belgrade
When does frost risk typically end in Belgrade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belgrade 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 Belgrade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belgrade typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belgrade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belgrade sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 17, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belgrade?
The federal record around Belgrade is a meaningful one — 593 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (266), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Belgrade?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Belgrade 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 174 to 202 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 Belgrade's scale — its 4b band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belgrade'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 Belgrade’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belgrade's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,114 acres it covers and 593 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belgrade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belgrade's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 1 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 593 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belgrade, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belgrade's boundary and the 3,114 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belgrade's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belgrade's 3,114 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 Belgrade's 3,114 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belgrade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,114 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 Belgrade-wide figureread your own land →
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