Bozeman, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bozeman, 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 Bozeman 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 Bozeman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bozeman — the short answer
Bozeman, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 5a is Bozeman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bozeman's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bozeman
Each reading below is measured for Bozeman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBozeman runs about 153 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
MeasuredBozeman sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Bozeman is in
Bozeman sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Bozeman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gallatin County.
What Grows in Bozeman
Every plant below cleared Bozeman's own zone 5a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bozeman?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Bozeman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bozeman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOZEMAN HIGH SCHOOL ADDITION & RENOVATIONBrownfields · 850 ft
- ABC RENTAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WEST MAIN EXXON USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SCRUBBYS CAR WASH WEST MAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BIG SKY CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BOZEMAN SOLVENT SITEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- RAINBOW SIGNS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FORMER LITTLE CHIEF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TEAM POLARISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COSMOPROF #8756Brownfields · 2000 ft
- KWIK WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ELLIS SPEEDY LUBEBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bozeman'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 Bozeman.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bozeman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bozeman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bozeman, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 192 sites within ~10 miles of Bozeman. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Bozeman
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 Bozeman average
Your land is one point inside Bozeman
Everything above resolves to Bozeman as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Bozeman Average
Bozeman Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bozeman
- ●One soil character for all of Bozeman
- ●Frost dates read at Bozeman's scale: May 5 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bozeman's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bozeman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bozeman, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bozeman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bozeman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bozeman average
How we know this about Bozeman
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 Bozeman’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 Bozeman
When does frost risk typically end in Bozeman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bozeman typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bozeman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bozeman typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bozeman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bozeman sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 21, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bozeman?
The federal record around Bozeman is a meaningful one — 531 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (196), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Bozeman?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bozeman's scale — its 5a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bozeman'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 Bozeman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bozeman's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,702 acres it covers and 531 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bozeman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bozeman's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 5 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 531 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bozeman, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bozeman's boundary and the 13,702 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bozeman's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bozeman's 13,702 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 Bozeman's 13,702 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bozeman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,702 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Bozeman-wide figureread your own land →
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