Chester, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chester, 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 Chester 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 Chester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chester — the short answer
Chester, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 312 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 312 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 3b is Chester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chester's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chester
Each reading below is measured for Chester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChester runs about 148 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
MeasuredChester sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Chester is in
Chester sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Liberty County.
What Grows in Chester
Every plant below cleared Chester's own zone 3b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chester?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — 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 Chester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF CHESTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BN CHESTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CJI PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 850 ft
- FRASER OIL INC CHESTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CHARLIES FUEL SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JAC & JILSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LIBERTY COUNTY RD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ROOSEVELT SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HEALTH PLANNING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CHESTER MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AG AIR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHESTER SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chester'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 Chester.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chester, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Chester. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chester
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 Chester average
Your land is one point inside Chester
Everything above resolves to Chester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 312 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 Chester Average
Chester Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Chester
- ●One soil character for all of Chester
- ●Frost dates read at Chester's scale: May 5 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chester's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chester, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chester average
How we know this about Chester
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 Chester’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 Chester
When does frost risk typically end in Chester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chester typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Chester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chester typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chester sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 16, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chester?
The federal record around Chester is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Chester?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Chester 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 5 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Chester's scale — its 3b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chester'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 Chester’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chester's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 312 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Sep 30 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chester's boundary and the 312 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chester's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chester's 312 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Liberty County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Liberty 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 Liberty County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chester's 312 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 312 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 Chester-wide figureread your own land →
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