Meagher County, in Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, 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
Meagher County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Meagher 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 Meagher County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Meagher County — the short answer
Meagher County, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 1.5M acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.5M 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 4b is Meagher County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meagher County's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Meagher County
Across a year, Meagher County accumulates about 930 growing degree days above 50°F, about 740 fewer than the middle Montana county — ahead of 11 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 Meagher County
Across Meagher County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Bacbuster, Reedwest, and Meagher are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Meagher County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Meagher County as well drained — but another 12% drains differently: 7% somewhat excessively drained, 2% somewhat poorly drained.
Bacbuster is the most extensive named soil at 3% of mapped acres, then Reedwest (2%) and Meagher (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 Meagher County
Each reading below is measured for Meagher 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 Meagher 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 Meagher County runs about pH 6.5–7.2, 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
MeasuredMeagher County runs about 135 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
MeasuredMeagher County 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 Meagher County is in
Meagher County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Great Plains (58%) and Middle Rockies (42%). 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 Meagher County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Meagher County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 135-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 Meagher County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What gets applied to farmland in Meagher County
USGS estimates 27,919 lb of Glyphosate on Meagher County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (11,044 lb) and Bromoxynil (2,469 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 Meagher County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Meagher County — 109 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 63 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
Meagher County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Meagher County
Closest first, across Meagher County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JACKSON RANCHES WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TENDERFOOT MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- OLD SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- T & W REPAIRBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- BERG GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- VAN OIL CO 12 W MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- TOWN PUMP INC WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS E MAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TOWN PUMP WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- RABES AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WHITE SULPHER SPRINGS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MEAGHER COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CAMAS CREEK CATTLE & SHEEP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meagher 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 Meagher County.
Sources Checked
across Meagher County
Severity Distribution
across Meagher County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meagher County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 63 sites across Meagher County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Meagher 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 Meagher County average
Your land is one point inside Meagher County
Everything above resolves to Meagher County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.5M 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 Meagher County Average
Meagher County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Meagher County
- ●One soil character for all of Meagher County
- ●Frost dates read at Meagher County's scale: May 14 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meagher County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Meagher County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meagher County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meagher County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meagher County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meagher County average
How we know this about Meagher 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 Meagher County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Meagher County
When does frost risk typically end in Meagher County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meagher County typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Meagher County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meagher County sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 12, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meagher County?
The federal record around Meagher County runs heavier than most — 109 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Meagher County?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Meagher 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Meagher County's scale — its 4b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meagher 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 Meagher County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Meagher County's own scale — its own ~135-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 109 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meagher County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meagher County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Meagher CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 109 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Meagher County's boundary and the 1,530,794 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Meagher County spans, Northwestern Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Meagher 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 Meagher County — the ~135 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 Meagher County's 1,530,794 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 109 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 Meagher Countyread your own land →