Browning, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Browning, 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 Browning 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 Browning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Browning — the short answer
Browning, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 179 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 179 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 Browning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Browning's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Browning
Each reading below is measured for Browning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrowning runs about 141 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBrowning 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 Browning is in
Browning sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Browning's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Browning
Every plant below cleared Browning's own zone 4a and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Browning?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Browning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Browning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BNSF BROWNING MT-1218-R01Brownfields · 450 ft
- BROWNING HIGH SCHOOL 0543Brownfields · 600 ft
- BROWNING SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MANY GLACIER RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NEW POST OFFICE LOCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MDOT ABANDONED SITE 1812822Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MDOT ABANDONED SITE 1812821Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SWIFT CURRENT MOTOR INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MDOT BROWING SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FORMER BIG SKY STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JIM'S BODY WORKS INCBrownfields · 800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Browning'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 Browning.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Browning
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Browning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Browning
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Browning, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Browning — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Browning
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 Browning average
Your land is one point inside Browning
Everything above resolves to Browning as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 179 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 Browning Average
Browning Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Browning
- ●One soil character for all of Browning
- ●Frost dates read at Browning's scale: May 8 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Browning's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Browning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Browning, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Browning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Browning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Browning average
How we know this about Browning
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 Browning’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 Browning
When does frost risk typically end in Browning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Browning typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Browning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Browning typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Browning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Browning sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 12, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Browning?
The federal record around Browning is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Browning?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Browning rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Browning's scale — its 4a band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Browning'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 Browning’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Browning's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 179 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Browning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Browning's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 26 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Browning, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Browning's boundary and the 179 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Browning's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Browning's 179 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glacier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glacier 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 Glacier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Browning's 179 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Browning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 179 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Browning-wide figureread your own land →