Little Browning, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Little Browning, 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 Little Browning 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 Little Browning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Browning — the short answer
Little Browning, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 465 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 465 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 Little Browning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Browning's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Browning
Each reading below is measured for Little Browning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Browning runs about 144 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
MeasuredLittle Browning 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 Little Browning is in
Little Browning sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Little Browning's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Little Browning
Every plant below cleared Little Browning's own zone 4a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Browning?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — 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 Little Browning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Browning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLACIER WELL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GLACIER COUNTY ROAD SHOPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GLACIER COUNTY RD DEPT CUT BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CUT BANK MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CUT BANK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EXXONMOBIL OIL CORP 99CMTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CUT BANK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT MAINTENANCE SHOPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- THELMA J BJORKLUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- UPS - CUT BANKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 1 MI N ON SANTA RITA RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CUT BANK PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GLACIER HOTELSuperfund · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Browning'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 Little Browning.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Little Browning
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Browning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Browning
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Browning, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Little Browning. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Little Browning
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 Little Browning average
Your land is one point inside Little Browning
Everything above resolves to Little Browning as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 465 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 Little Browning Average
Little Browning Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Little Browning
- ●One soil character for all of Little Browning
- ●Frost dates read at Little Browning's scale: May 7 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Browning's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Browning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Browning, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Browning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Browning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Browning average
How we know this about Little Browning
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 Little Browning’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 Little Browning
When does frost risk typically end in Little Browning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Browning typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Little Browning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Browning typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Browning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Browning sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 14, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Browning?
The federal record around Little Browning is a meaningful one — 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Little Browning?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Little Browning 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Little Browning's scale — its 4a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Browning'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 Little Browning’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little Browning's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 465 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Browning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Browning's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 28 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Browning, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Browning's boundary and the 465 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Little Browning's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little Browning's 465 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glacier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glacier 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 Glacier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little Browning's 465 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Browning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 465 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Little Browning-wide figureread your own land →