Lakeview, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lakeview, 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 Lakeview 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 Lakeview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lakeview — the short answer
Lakeview, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 99 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~99
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 493 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 3b is Lakeview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakeview's 99-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakeview
Each reading below is measured for Lakeview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLakeview runs about 99 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
MeasuredLakeview sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Lakeview is in
Lakeview sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lakeview's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaverhead County.
What Grows in Lakeview
Every plant below cleared Lakeview's own zone 3b and its 99-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakeview?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Lakeview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakeview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MDOT LIMA SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LIMA ROAD DEPT YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD LIMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 14S02W23BDAA01Nitrate · 750 ft
- 14S02W23BCA 01Nitrate · 900 ft
- RED ROCK LAKES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 14S02W23CAA 01Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 14S02W22AACD01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- FWS-RED ROCK LAKES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGESuperfund · 0.8 mi
- RED ROCK LAKES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 13S02W26DDDB01Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 13S01W30CBA 01Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakeview'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 Lakeview.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Lakeview
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakeview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakeview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakeview, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Lakeview. 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 Lakeview
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 Lakeview average
Your land is one point inside Lakeview
Everything above resolves to Lakeview as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 493 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 Lakeview Average
Lakeview Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Lakeview
- ●One soil character for all of Lakeview
- ●Frost dates read at Lakeview's scale: Jun 6 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakeview's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakeview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakeview, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakeview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakeview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakeview average
How we know this about Lakeview
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 Lakeview’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 Lakeview
When does frost risk typically end in Lakeview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakeview typically lands around Jun 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Lakeview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakeview typically arrives around Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 30, so the watching starts about Aug 14 — about 99 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakeview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakeview sees about 99 frost-free days — roughly Jun 6 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 27 to Aug 30, about 64 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakeview?
The federal record around Lakeview is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Lakeview?
With about 99 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lakeview 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 127 to 155 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lakeview's scale — its 3b band and its 99-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakeview'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 Lakeview’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lakeview's own scale — its own ~99-day season between 28°F freezes, the 493 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakeview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lakeview's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 6 and Sep 13 and the ~99-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakeview, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakeview's boundary and the 493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~99-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lakeview's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lakeview's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaverhead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaverhead 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 Beaverhead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakeview's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakeview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 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 Lakeview-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaLakeview sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides