Centerville, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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 Centerville, 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 Centerville 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 Centerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Centerville — the short answer
Centerville, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 381 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 381 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 Centerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Centerville's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Centerville
Each reading below is measured for Centerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCenterville runs about 162 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
MeasuredCenterville 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 Centerville is in
Centerville sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Centerville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cascade County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Centerville
Every plant below cleared Centerville's own zone 4b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Centerville?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Centerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Centerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILL TOP COLONYCAFO · 1800 ft
- MINERS MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TRACY BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- AMERICAN BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB I 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- KLASNER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BIG STONE COLONYCAFO · 2.6 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB A 9Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 20N05E29ABBC01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- PLEASANT VALLEY COLONYCAFO · 5.6 mi
- MENGHINI ANGUS RANCH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- GRASS LAND COLONYCAFO · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Centerville'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 Centerville.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Centerville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Centerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Centerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Centerville, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Centerville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Centerville
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 Centerville average
Your land is one point inside Centerville
Everything above resolves to Centerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 381 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 Centerville Average
Centerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Centerville
- ●One soil character for all of Centerville
- ●Frost dates read at Centerville's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Centerville's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Centerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Centerville, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Centerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Centerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Centerville average
How we know this about Centerville
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 Centerville’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 Centerville
When does frost risk typically end in Centerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Centerville typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Centerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Centerville typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Centerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Centerville sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Centerville?
The federal record around Centerville is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest CAFO record about 0.3 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 Centerville?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Centerville's scale — its 4b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Centerville'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 Centerville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Centerville's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 381 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Centerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Centerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Centerville, the closest CAFO record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Centerville's boundary and the 381 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Centerville sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Centerville's 381 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cascade County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cascade 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 Cascade County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Centerville's 381 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Centerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 381 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO 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 Centerville-wide figureread your own land →