Broadus, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Broadus, 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 Broadus 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 Broadus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Broadus — the short answer
Broadus, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 225 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 225 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 Broadus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broadus's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Broadus
Each reading below is measured for Broadus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBroadus runs about 157 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
MeasuredBroadus 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 Broadus is in
Broadus sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Broadus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Powder River County.
What Grows in Broadus
Every plant below cleared Broadus's own zone 4b and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Broadus?
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 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 5 — 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 Broadus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Broadus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROBERT MCCURDY & RICHARD SHAMLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- THE CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- UPS - BROADUSBrownfields · 300 ft
- HAROLD J MILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BROADUS TRUCK & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- VALLEY MOTOR SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 04S51E34ACA 01Nitrate · 800 ft
- TOWN OF BROADUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- POWDER RIVER COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- POWDER RIVER NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WATTERS FARM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- EPSIE STORE ABANDONEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Broadus'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 Broadus.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Broadus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Broadus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Broadus, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Broadus. 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 Broadus
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 Broadus average
Your land is one point inside Broadus
Everything above resolves to Broadus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 225 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 Broadus Average
Broadus Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Broadus
- ●One soil character for all of Broadus
- ●Frost dates read at Broadus's scale: May 1 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broadus's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Broadus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broadus, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broadus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broadus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broadus average
How we know this about Broadus
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 Broadus’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 Broadus
When does frost risk typically end in Broadus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Broadus 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 Broadus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Broadus 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 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Broadus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Broadus sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 21, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Broadus?
The federal record around Broadus shows 52 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Broadus?
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 Broadus's scale — its 4b band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Broadus'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 Broadus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Broadus's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 225 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broadus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Broadus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 5 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Broadus, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Broadus's boundary and the 225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Broadus's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Broadus's 225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Powder River County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Powder River 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 Powder River County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Broadus's 225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Broadus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 225 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 Broadus-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaBroadus sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.