Carbon County, in Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Carbon County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Carbon County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Carbon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carbon County — the short answer
Carbon County, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 1.3M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.3M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5a is Carbon County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carbon County's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Carbon County
Across a year, Carbon County accumulates about 1,919 growing degree days above 50°F, about 249 more than the middle Montana county — ahead of 37 of Montana’s 56 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Carbon County
Across Carbon County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Travessilla, Midway, and Heath are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Carbon County
The USDA soil survey maps 53% of Carbon County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Travessilla is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Midway (6%) and Heath (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Carbon County
Each reading below is measured for Carbon County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Carbon County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Carbon County runs about pH 7.0–7.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCarbon County runs about 160 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
MeasuredCarbon County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Carbon County is in
Carbon County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Great Plains (51%), Middle Rockies (29%) and Wyoming Basin (21%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Carbon County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Carbon County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 160-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile.
Is it too late to plant in Carbon County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 7 — 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.
Documented around Carbon County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Carbon County
USGS estimates 75,018 lb of Glyphosate on Carbon County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (22,765 lb) and Dicamba (5,032 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Carbon County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Carbon County — 250 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Carbon County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Carbon County
Closest first, across Carbon County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 07S22E23DDBB01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Red Lodge WashoeMining · 3.3 mi
- 08S22E02BACC01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 07S23E06CDAA01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 7S-23E-31ccc01Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- 08S22E01ADAA01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 07S21E15BACD01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 07S23E05ACCC01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 07S23E05DDAA01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- RED BUTTE PIPE LINE - SILVERTIP STATIONBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- CARBON COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- JUNCTION EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carbon County'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 Carbon County.
Total Sites
250
across Carbon County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Carbon County
Severity Distribution
across Carbon County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carbon County, two things run higher than the national average across Carbon County — Nitrate (144 sites) and Mining (16 sites). 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Carbon County
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 Carbon County average
Your land is one point inside Carbon County
Everything above resolves to Carbon County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.3M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Carbon County Average
Carbon County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Carbon County
- ●One soil character for all of Carbon County
- ●Frost dates read at Carbon County's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carbon County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Carbon County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carbon County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carbon County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carbon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carbon County average
How we know this about Carbon County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Carbon County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Carbon County
When does frost risk typically end in Carbon County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carbon County 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.
How long is the growing season in Carbon County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carbon County sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 23, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carbon County?
The federal record around Carbon County is a meaningful one — 250 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (144), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Carbon County's scale — its 5a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carbon County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Montana's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Carbon County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Carbon County's own scale — its own ~160-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 250 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carbon County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carbon County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Carbon CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 250 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Carbon County's boundary and the 1,310,648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Carbon County spans, Northwestern Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Carbon County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Carbon County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Carbon County — the ~160 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carbon County's 1,310,648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 250 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Carbon Countyread your own land →