Gallatin County, in Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Gallatin County lies within the Gallatin Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Gallatin County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Gallatin 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 Gallatin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gallatin County — the short answer
Gallatin County, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 1.7M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.7M 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 Gallatin County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gallatin County's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Gallatin County's hard-freeze record runs about 114 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Amsterdam at about 153 days, Gallatin Gateway at 153, King Arthur Park at 153, Churchill at 150 and Ponderosa Pines at 150, and 2 other towns inside the county run markedly longer too (against the county's ~114).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~114-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Gallatin County
Across a year, Gallatin County accumulates about 674 growing degree days above 50°F, about 996 fewer than the middle Montana county — ahead of 3 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 Gallatin County
Across Gallatin County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Brocko, Amesha, and Amsterdam are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.4–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Gallatin County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Gallatin County as well drained — but another 17% drains differently: 8% somewhat excessively drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Brocko is the most extensive named soil at 3% of mapped acres, then Amesha (2%) and Amsterdam (2%).
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 Gallatin County
Each reading below is measured for Gallatin 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 Gallatin County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Gallatin County runs about pH 6.4–7.2, 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
MeasuredGallatin County runs about 114 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
MeasuredGallatin 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 Gallatin County is in
Gallatin County sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Gallatin County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Gallatin County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 114-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 Gallatin 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 May 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Gallatin County
USGS estimates 85,547 lb of Glyphosate on Gallatin County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (51,583 lb) and Atrazine (14,219 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 Gallatin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Gallatin County — 1,041 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. 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 Gallatin 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 Gallatin County
Closest first, across Gallatin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03S04E36ACAC01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 03S04E34ABBB01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- TRAPPERS CABIN RANCH CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- OLD GENERAL STORE PRIVATE RESIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 03S04E23CABB01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 03S05E21BBBA01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- LUMBER ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- GLACIER MOUNTAIN CHEESE CO USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- BUFFALO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 03S04E11DDBC01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 03S05E15DCCA01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 03S05E07BCCC01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gallatin 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 Gallatin County.
Severity Distribution
across Gallatin County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gallatin County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 534 sites across Gallatin County. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gallatin 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 Gallatin County average
Your land is one point inside Gallatin County
Everything above resolves to Gallatin County as a whole — a county whose own towns’ 30-year records run 150 days between freezes in Churchill to 153 in King Arthur Park. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 Gallatin County Average
Gallatin County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Gallatin County
- ●One soil character for all of Gallatin County
- ●Frost dates read at Gallatin County's scale: Jun 1 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gallatin County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Gallatin County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gallatin County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gallatin County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gallatin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gallatin County average
How we know this about Gallatin 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 Gallatin County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Gallatin County
When does frost risk typically end in Gallatin County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gallatin County typically lands around Jun 1, 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 Jun 22.
How long is the growing season in Gallatin County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gallatin County sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly Jun 1 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 22 to Sep 9, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gallatin County?
The federal record around Gallatin County is a meaningful one — 1,041 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (534), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Gallatin County?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Gallatin County 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 1 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Gallatin County's scale — its 5a band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gallatin 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 Gallatin County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Gallatin County's own scale — its own ~114-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,041 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gallatin County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gallatin County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~114-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Gallatin CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,041 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Gallatin County's boundary and the 1,667,425 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~114-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gallatin County sitting wholly inside the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Gallatin 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 Gallatin County — the ~114 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 Gallatin County's 1,667,425 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,041 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 Gallatin Countyread your own land →