Charlos Heights, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Charlos Heights, 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 Charlos Heights 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 Charlos Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charlos Heights — the short answer
Charlos Heights, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 758 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 758 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 5b is Charlos Heights's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlos Heights's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charlos Heights
Each reading below is measured for Charlos Heights itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCharlos Heights runs about 144 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
MeasuredCharlos Heights sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Charlos Heights is in
Charlos Heights sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Charlos Heights's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ravalli County is mostly Idaho Batholith. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Charlos Heights
Every plant below cleared Charlos Heights's own zone 5b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Charlos Heights?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — 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 Charlos Heights
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charlos Heights. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRIAN RICHARDSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOG HOMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 05N21W36DCC 02Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- BLAHNIK CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCCALL CO BULK PLANT BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 05N21W27DDBD01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 04N21W14CBAA01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 05N21W22CDAD01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 05N20W30BDCD01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 04N21W16DDDD01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- MDOT HAMILTON SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- WHISPERING TURBINESBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charlos Heights'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 Charlos Heights.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Charlos Heights
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charlos Heights
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charlos Heights
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlos Heights, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 142 sites within ~10 miles of Charlos Heights. 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 Charlos Heights
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 Charlos Heights average
Your land is one point inside Charlos Heights
Everything above resolves to Charlos Heights as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 758 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 Charlos Heights Average
Charlos Heights Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Charlos Heights
- ●One soil character for all of Charlos Heights
- ●Frost dates read at Charlos Heights's scale: May 7 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlos Heights's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charlos Heights
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlos Heights, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlos Heights averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlos Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlos Heights average
How we know this about Charlos Heights
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 Charlos Heights’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 Charlos Heights
When does frost risk typically end in Charlos Heights?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charlos Heights typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Charlos Heights?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charlos Heights typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Charlos Heights?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charlos Heights sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 14, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charlos Heights?
The federal record around Charlos Heights is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (142), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 gardeners stretch the season in Charlos Heights?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Charlos Heights 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Charlos Heights's scale — its 5b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charlos Heights'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 Charlos Heights’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Charlos Heights's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 758 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlos Heights's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charlos Heights's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 28 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charlos Heights, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charlos Heights's boundary and the 758 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Charlos Heights sits in the Middle Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Charlos Heights's 758 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ravalli County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ravalli 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 Ravalli County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charlos Heights's 758 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charlos Heights you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 758 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Charlos Heights-wide figureread your own land →
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