Jardine, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Jardine, 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 Jardine 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 Jardine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jardine — the short answer
Jardine, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 115 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~115
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Jardine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jardine's 115-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jardine
Each reading below is measured for Jardine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJardine runs about 115 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
MeasuredJardine 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 Jardine is in
Jardine sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Jardine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Park County.
What Grows in Jardine
Every plant below cleared Jardine's own zone 4b and its 115-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jardine?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 22 — 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 Jardine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jardine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JardineMining · 2400 ft
- Kennebec ClaimMining · 0.8 mi
- Mccauley GroupMining · 0.8 mi
- Jardine MineMining · 0.8 mi
- Jardine-Crevasse Mountain DistrictsMining · 1.0 mi
- PrattMining · 1.1 mi
- Tower GroveMining · 1.1 mi
- TVX MINERAL HILL MINEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Medona MineMining · 1.2 mi
- Pop InclineMining · 1.2 mi
- Watson MineMining · 1.2 mi
- First ChanceMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jardine'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 Jardine.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Jardine
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jardine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jardine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jardine, Mining runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Jardine. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Jardine
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 Jardine average
Your land is one point inside Jardine
Everything above resolves to Jardine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Jardine Average
Jardine Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Jardine
- ●One soil character for all of Jardine
- ●Frost dates read at Jardine's scale: May 30 to Sep 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jardine's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jardine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jardine, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jardine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jardine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jardine average
How we know this about Jardine
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 Jardine’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 Jardine
When does frost risk typically end in Jardine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jardine typically lands around May 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Jardine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jardine typically arrives around Sep 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 8, so the watching starts about Aug 23 — about 115 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jardine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jardine sees about 115 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 8, about 80 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jardine?
The federal record around Jardine runs heavier than most — 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Mining record about 0.5 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 Jardine?
With about 115 frost-free days between hard freezes, Jardine 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 143 to 171 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Jardine's scale — its 4b band and its 115-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jardine'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 Jardine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jardine's own scale — its own ~115-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,442 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jardine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jardine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 22 and the ~115-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jardine, the closest Mining record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jardine's boundary and the 9,442 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~115-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jardine's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jardine's 9,442 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Park County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Park 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 Park County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jardine's 9,442 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jardine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,442 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.5 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 Jardine-wide figureread your own land →
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