Belt, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Belt, 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 Belt 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 Belt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belt — the short answer
Belt, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 216 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- 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
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 216 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 Belt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belt's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belt
Each reading below is measured for Belt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelt runs about 162 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
MeasuredBelt 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 Belt is in
Belt sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Belt's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cascade County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Belt
Every plant below cleared Belt's own zone 4b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belt?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Belt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELT VALLEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- HIDDEN VALLEY RANCH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BELT SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BELT PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FRENCH COULEE - HIGHWAY DRAINNitrate · 0.8 mi
- BN SANTE FE BELTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- AARON L TILLMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MDOT BELTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- JIM LARSON DEVELOPED SPRING IN LARGE CEMENT CULVERTNitrate · 1.8 mi
- BELT WELL 5CNitrate · 1.8 mi
- BELT WELL 4CNitrate · 2.0 mi
- JACK WIEDERRICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belt'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 Belt.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Belt
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belt, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Belt. 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 Belt
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 Belt average
Your land is one point inside Belt
Everything above resolves to Belt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 216 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 Belt Average
Belt Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Belt
- ●One soil character for all of Belt
- ●Frost dates read at Belt's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belt's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belt, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belt average
How we know this about Belt
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 Belt’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 Belt
When does frost risk typically end in Belt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belt typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Belt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belt 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 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belt sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belt?
The federal record around Belt is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Belt?
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 Belt's scale — its 4b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belt'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 Belt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belt's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 216 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belt, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belt's boundary and the 216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Belt sits in the Northwestern Great 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 Belt's 216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cascade County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cascade 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 Cascade County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belt's 216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Belt-wide figureread your own land →