Lakeside, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lakeside, 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 Lakeside 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 Lakeside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lakeside — the short answer
Lakeside, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- 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 5b is Lakeside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakeside's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakeside
Each reading below is measured for Lakeside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLakeside runs about 164 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
MeasuredLakeside sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Lakeside is in
Lakeside sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lakeside's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Flathead County is mostly Canadian Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lakeside
Every plant below cleared Lakeside's own zone 5b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakeside?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Lakeside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakeside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YOUTH WITH A MISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ARIES GAS AND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HAROLD R TAYLOR & EGY HURGHADAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LAKESIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- JOE BLOGZUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LAKESIDE COUNTY WATER AND SEWER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WEST SHORE HARBOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN LAKESIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MDOT LAKESIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CLASSIC CO BOAT WORKS & MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FLATHEAD SALMON FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 27N21W26CDCC01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakeside'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 Lakeside.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Lakeside
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakeside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakeside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakeside, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lakeside — Mining (9 sites) and Nitrate (24 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 Lakeside
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 Lakeside average
Your land is one point inside Lakeside
Everything above resolves to Lakeside 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 Lakeside Average
Lakeside Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lakeside
- ●One soil character for all of Lakeside
- ●Frost dates read at Lakeside's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakeside's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakeside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakeside, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakeside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakeside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakeside average
How we know this about Lakeside
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 Lakeside’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 Lakeside
When does frost risk typically end in Lakeside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakeside typically lands around Apr 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 May 21.
When is the first frost in Lakeside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakeside typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakeside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakeside sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 27, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakeside?
The federal record around Lakeside is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Lakeside?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lakeside's scale — its 5b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakeside'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 Lakeside’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lakeside's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,012 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakeside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lakeside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 11 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakeside, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakeside's boundary and the 9,012 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lakeside sits in the Northern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lakeside's 9,012 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Flathead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Flathead 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 Flathead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakeside's 9,012 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakeside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,012 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 Lakeside-wide figureread your own land →
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