Brockton, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brockton, 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 Brockton 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 Brockton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brockton — the short answer
Brockton, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 634 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- 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
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 634 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 Brockton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brockton's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brockton
Each reading below is measured for Brockton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrockton runs about 152 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
MeasuredBrockton 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 Brockton is in
Brockton sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Brockton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roosevelt County.
What Grows in Brockton
Every plant below cleared Brockton's own zone 4a and its 152-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brockton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Brockton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brockton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 28N53E30AD 08Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- BROCKTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CENEX HARVEST STATES BROCKTON ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 28N53E30DDBB01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 28N53E32DABC01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- B & S QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 28N53E19BCCB01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 27N53E03DBAA01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 28N53E25DBBC01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 28N53E06BBAB01 ROOSEVELT CO. 086Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 29N52E35CBBB02 CLEVELAND 086Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- CHARLEY CREEK CATTLE CO INCCAFO · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brockton'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 Brockton.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Brockton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brockton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brockton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brockton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Brockton. 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 Brockton
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 Brockton average
Your land is one point inside Brockton
Everything above resolves to Brockton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 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 Brockton Average
Brockton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Brockton
- ●One soil character for all of Brockton
- ●Frost dates read at Brockton's scale: May 3 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brockton's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brockton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brockton, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brockton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brockton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brockton average
How we know this about Brockton
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 Brockton’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 Brockton
When does frost risk typically end in Brockton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brockton typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Brockton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brockton 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 152 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brockton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brockton sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 18, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brockton?
The federal record around Brockton shows 52 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles 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 Brockton?
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 Brockton's scale — its 4a band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brockton'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 Brockton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brockton's own scale — its own ~152-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brockton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brockton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 2 and the ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brockton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brockton's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brockton's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brockton's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roosevelt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roosevelt 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 Roosevelt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brockton's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brockton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Brockton-wide figureread your own land →
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