Drummond, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Drummond, 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 Drummond 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 Drummond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Drummond — the short answer
Drummond, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 125 days between hard freezes, across 347 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~125
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 347 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 4b is Drummond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Drummond's 125-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Drummond
Each reading below is measured for Drummond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDrummond runs about 125 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
MeasuredDrummond 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 Drummond is in
Drummond sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Drummond's own centroid rather than borrowed from Granite County.
What Grows in Drummond
Every plant below cleared Drummond's own zone 4b and its 125-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Drummond?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Drummond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Drummond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BN DRUMMOND MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- AT & T COMMUNICATIONS BEARMOUTH RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- FISCHERS CHEVUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- AT&T DRUMMONDBrownfields · 350 ft
- SCHOOL BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MOUNTAIN WEST CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FICS KWIK SIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 11N12W31AACB01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- FORMER AMOCO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 10N12W06BBAA01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11N12W29BDAA01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 10N12W04AAAB01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Drummond'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 Drummond.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Drummond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Drummond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Drummond, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Drummond — Mining (10 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Drummond
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 Drummond average
Your land is one point inside Drummond
Everything above resolves to Drummond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 347 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 Drummond Average
Drummond Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Drummond
- ●One soil character for all of Drummond
- ●Frost dates read at Drummond's scale: May 17 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Drummond's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Drummond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Drummond, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Drummond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Drummond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Drummond average
How we know this about Drummond
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 Drummond’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 Drummond
When does frost risk typically end in Drummond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Drummond typically lands around May 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Drummond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Drummond typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 125 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Drummond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Drummond sees about 125 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 5, about 90 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Drummond?
The federal record around Drummond is a meaningful one — 49 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Drummond?
With about 125 frost-free days between hard freezes, Drummond 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 153 to 181 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Drummond's scale — its 4b band and its 125-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Drummond'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 Drummond’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Drummond's own scale — its own ~125-day season between 28°F freezes, the 347 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Drummond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Drummond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Sep 19 and the ~125-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Drummond, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Drummond's boundary and the 347 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~125-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Drummond's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Drummond's 347 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Granite County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Granite 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 Granite County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Drummond's 347 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Drummond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 347 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 Drummond-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaDrummond sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.