Yellowstone County, in Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Yellowstone County lies within the Yellowstone Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Yellowstone County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yellowstone County — the short answer
Yellowstone County, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 1.7M acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- 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 4b is Yellowstone County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yellowstone County's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Yellowstone County
Across a year, Yellowstone County accumulates about 2,221 growing degree days above 50°F, about 551 more than the middle Montana county — ahead of 54 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 Yellowstone County
Across Yellowstone County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Cabbart, Lismas, and McRae are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Yellowstone County
The USDA soil survey maps 95% of Yellowstone County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% poorly drained.
Cabbart is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Lismas (8%) and McRae (8%).
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 Yellowstone County
Each reading below is measured for Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredYellowstone County runs about 153 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
MeasuredYellowstone 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 Yellowstone County is in
Yellowstone County sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Yellowstone County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Yellowstone County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 153-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 Yellowstone County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Yellowstone County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Yellowstone County
USGS estimates 382,181 lb of Glyphosate on Yellowstone County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (171,969 lb) and Dicamba (23,341 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 Yellowstone County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Yellowstone County — 1,232 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 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 Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County
Closest first, across Yellowstone County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUNTLEY FEEDERSCAFO · 0.8 mi
- JOHN SEADER CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MSU SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE RESEARCH CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 02N28E16C 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- CHARLES D ROBBINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 02N27E11DBAB01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 02N27E24DBDC01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 2N-28E-03dda01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- RAZOR CREEK FARMSCAFO · 3.0 mi
- RAZOR CREEK FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- HUNTLEY EXPRESSWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HAALANDS T BONE FEEDERSCAFO · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County.
Sources Checked
across Yellowstone County
Severity Distribution
across Yellowstone County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yellowstone County, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 22 sites across Yellowstone County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County average
Your land is one point inside Yellowstone County
Everything above resolves to Yellowstone County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.7M 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 Yellowstone County Average
Yellowstone County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Yellowstone County
- ●One soil character for all of Yellowstone County
- ●Frost dates read at Yellowstone County's scale: May 2 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yellowstone County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Yellowstone County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yellowstone County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yellowstone County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yellowstone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yellowstone County average
How we know this about Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Yellowstone County
When does frost risk typically end in Yellowstone County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yellowstone County typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Yellowstone County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yellowstone County sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 18, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yellowstone County?
The federal record around Yellowstone County is a meaningful one — 1,232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (537), the nearest CAFO record about 0.8 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 Yellowstone County's scale — its 4b band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Yellowstone County's own scale — its own ~153-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,232 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yellowstone County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yellowstone County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Yellowstone CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,232 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest CAFO record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Yellowstone County's boundary and the 1,685,375 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Yellowstone County sitting wholly inside the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Yellowstone County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County — the ~153 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 Yellowstone County's 1,685,375 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,232 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 Yellowstone Countyread your own land →