Four Corners, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Four Corners, 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 Four Corners 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 Four Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Four Corners — the short answer
Four Corners, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 5a is Four Corners's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Four Corners's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Four Corners
Each reading below is measured for Four Corners itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFour Corners runs about 152 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
MeasuredFour Corners sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Four Corners is in
Four Corners sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Four Corners's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gallatin County.
What Grows in Four Corners
Every plant below cleared Four Corners's own zone 5a and its 152-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Four Corners?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — 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 Four Corners
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Four Corners. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 02S04E13BADA01Nitrate · 700 ft
- FOUR CORNERS BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 02S04E13BBDA01Nitrate · 800 ft
- BOZEMAN TRANSMISSION CENTERBrownfields · 1500 ft
- THRIFTWAY SUPER STOP 8Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CASEYS CORNER #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HANDS ON INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- COXS WHEEL IN GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TOWN PUMP INC BOZEMAN 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MACS CORNER 4 CORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS #723957Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- RO DRIFT BOATSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Four Corners'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 Four Corners.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Four Corners
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Four Corners
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Four Corners, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Four Corners — Nitrate (222 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Four Corners
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 Four Corners average
Your land is one point inside Four Corners
Everything above resolves to Four Corners as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Four Corners Average
Four Corners Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Four Corners
- ●One soil character for all of Four Corners
- ●Frost dates read at Four Corners's scale: May 5 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Four Corners's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Four Corners
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Four Corners, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Four Corners averages can't show:
We read public map data around Four Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Four Corners average
How we know this about Four Corners
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 Four Corners’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 Four Corners
When does frost risk typically end in Four Corners?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Four Corners typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Four Corners?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Four Corners typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 152 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Four Corners?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Four Corners sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 20, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Four Corners?
The federal record around Four Corners is a meaningful one — 575 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (222), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Four Corners?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Four Corners's scale — its 5a band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Four Corners'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 Four Corners’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Four Corners's own scale — its own ~152-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,940 acres it covers and 575 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Four Corners's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Four Corners's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 4 and the ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 575 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Four Corners, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Four Corners's boundary and the 6,940 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Four Corners's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Four Corners's 6,940 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gallatin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gallatin 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 Gallatin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Four Corners's 6,940 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Four Corners you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,940 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Four Corners-wide figureread your own land →
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