Box Elder, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Box Elder, 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 Box Elder 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 Box Elder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Box Elder — the short answer
Box Elder, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 503 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 503 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 4a is Box Elder's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Box Elder's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Box Elder
Each reading below is measured for Box Elder itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBox Elder runs about 154 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
MeasuredBox Elder sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Box Elder is in
Box Elder sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Box Elder's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hill County.
What Grows in Box Elder
Every plant below cleared Box Elder's own zone 4a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Box Elder?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Box Elder
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Box Elder. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PERRYS BEAR PAW HOTEL BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FRIEDES HWY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 406 LAND & CATTLE LLCCAFO · 4.1 mi
- 31N13E32BAAA01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 29N13E34ABCB01Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- REINHOLT E BITZUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- A & D AG CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
Measured from Box Elder'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 Box Elder.
Total Sites
9
within ~10 miles of Box Elder
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Box Elder
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Box Elder
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •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 Box Elder
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 Box Elder average
Your land is one point inside Box Elder
Everything above resolves to Box Elder as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 503 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 Box Elder Average
Box Elder Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Box Elder
- ●One soil character for all of Box Elder
- ●Frost dates read at Box Elder's scale: May 1 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Box Elder's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Box Elder
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Box Elder, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Box Elder averages can't show:
We read public map data around Box Elder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Box Elder average
How we know this about Box Elder
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 Box Elder’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 Box Elder
When does frost risk typically end in Box Elder?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Box Elder typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Box Elder?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Box Elder typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Box Elder?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Box Elder sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 18, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Box Elder?
The federal record around Box Elder is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Box Elder?
From about Sep 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Box Elder's scale — its 4a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Box Elder'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 Box Elder’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Box Elder's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 503 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Box Elder's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Box Elder's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 2 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Box Elder, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Box Elder's boundary and the 503 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Box Elder's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Box Elder's 503 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hill 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 Hill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Box Elder's 503 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Box Elder you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 503 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Box Elder-wide figureread your own land →
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