Elkhorn, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and okra all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Elkhorn, 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 Elkhorn 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 Elkhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elkhorn — the short answer
Elkhorn, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 103 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~103
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Elkhorn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkhorn's 103-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkhorn
Each reading below is measured for Elkhorn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElkhorn runs about 103 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
MeasuredElkhorn 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 Elkhorn is in
Elkhorn sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Elkhorn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Elkhorn
Every plant below cleared Elkhorn's own zone 4b and its 103-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elkhorn?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Elkhorn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkhorn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ElkhornMining · 650 ft
- HardcashMining · 1600 ft
- Dunstone MineMining · 1800 ft
- Arcturus ClaimMining · 2500 ft
- James R. KeeneMining · 0.5 mi
- Golden Moss MineMining · 0.5 mi
- UnionMining · 0.5 mi
- UNION ELKHORNSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Golden Curry MineMining · 0.6 mi
- LuxanburgMining · 0.7 mi
- 06N03W14BDAB01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- DunstoneMining · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elkhorn'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 Elkhorn.
Total Sites
303
within ~10 miles of Elkhorn
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elkhorn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkhorn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elkhorn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elkhorn — Mining (210 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Elkhorn
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 Elkhorn average
Your land is one point inside Elkhorn
Everything above resolves to Elkhorn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Elkhorn Average
Elkhorn Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Elkhorn
- ●One soil character for all of Elkhorn
- ●Frost dates read at Elkhorn's scale: Jun 4 to Sep 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkhorn's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkhorn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkhorn, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkhorn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkhorn average
How we know this about Elkhorn
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 Elkhorn’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 Elkhorn
When does frost risk typically end in Elkhorn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkhorn typically lands around Jun 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Elkhorn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkhorn typically arrives around Sep 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 1, so the watching starts about Aug 16 — about 103 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elkhorn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkhorn sees about 103 frost-free days — roughly Jun 4 through Sep 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 25 to Sep 1, about 68 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elkhorn?
The federal record around Elkhorn runs heavier than most — 303 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (210), the nearest Mining record about 0.1 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 Elkhorn?
With about 103 frost-free days between hard freezes, Elkhorn 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 131 to 159 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Elkhorn's scale — its 4b band and its 103-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkhorn'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 Elkhorn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elkhorn's own scale — its own ~103-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,316 acres it covers and 303 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkhorn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elkhorn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 4 and Sep 15 and the ~103-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 303 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkhorn, the closest Mining record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkhorn's boundary and the 4,316 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~103-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elkhorn's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elkhorn's 4,316 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elkhorn's 4,316 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkhorn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,316 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.1 miles 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 Elkhorn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaElkhorn sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides