Fort Shaw, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Shaw, 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 Fort Shaw 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 Fort Shaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Shaw — the short answer
Fort Shaw, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- 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 4a is Fort Shaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Shaw's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Shaw
Each reading below is measured for Fort Shaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Shaw runs about 161 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
MeasuredFort Shaw sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Fort Shaw is in
Fort Shaw sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Shaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cascade County.
What Grows in Fort Shaw
Every plant below cleared Fort Shaw's own zone 4a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Shaw?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Fort Shaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Shaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALDWELLS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BN SHAW BUTTE MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- STEINBACH FEEDLOTCAFO · 4.5 mi
- BIG SKY SCIENTIFIC LLCBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- BIG SKY SCIENTIFIC LLCToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
- MDOT CASCADEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- SUN RIVER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MDOT SUN RIVER MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB G 8Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB G 11Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB H 7Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB G 2Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Shaw'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 Fort Shaw.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Fort Shaw
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Shaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Shaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Shaw, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Shaw. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Shaw
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 Fort Shaw average
Your land is one point inside Fort Shaw
Everything above resolves to Fort Shaw 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 Fort Shaw Average
Fort Shaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Fort Shaw
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Shaw
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Shaw's scale: May 2 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Shaw's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Shaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Shaw, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Shaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Shaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Shaw average
How we know this about Fort Shaw
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 Fort Shaw’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 Fort Shaw
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Shaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Shaw 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.
When is the first frost in Fort Shaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Shaw typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Shaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Shaw sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 26, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Shaw?
The federal record around Fort Shaw is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Shaw?
From about Sep 10 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Shaw's scale — its 4a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Shaw'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 Fort Shaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Shaw's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,635 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Shaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Shaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 10 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Shaw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Shaw's boundary and the 3,635 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Shaw's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Shaw's 3,635 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cascade County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cascade 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 Cascade County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Shaw's 3,635 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Shaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,635 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Fort Shaw-wide figureread your own land →