Lolo, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lolo, 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 Lolo 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 Lolo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lolo — the short answer
Lolo, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Lolo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lolo's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lolo
Each reading below is measured for Lolo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLolo runs about 149 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
MeasuredLolo 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 Lolo is in
Lolo sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lolo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Missoula County is mostly Middle Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lolo
Every plant below cleared Lolo's own zone 5b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lolo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Lolo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lolo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12N20W34DBAD01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- TOWN PUMP INC LOLO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 12N20W26CCDD01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- OLES COUNTRY STORE 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 12N20W35CBAB01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- VERNON STIRMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PROMARK INC LOLOBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- TOWN PUMP LOLO #2Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- TOWN PUMP INC LOLO 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LOLO SUPERSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- VICTOR LAND & LIVESTOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TECE TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lolo'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 Lolo.
Total Sites
575
within ~10 miles of Lolo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lolo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lolo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lolo, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 150 sites within ~10 miles of Lolo. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lolo
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 Lolo average
Your land is one point inside Lolo
Everything above resolves to Lolo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Lolo Average
Lolo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lolo
- ●One soil character for all of Lolo
- ●Frost dates read at Lolo's scale: May 5 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lolo's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lolo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lolo, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lolo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lolo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lolo average
How we know this about Lolo
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 Lolo’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 Lolo
When does frost risk typically end in Lolo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lolo 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 Lolo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lolo typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lolo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lolo sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 17, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lolo?
The federal record around Lolo is a meaningful one — 575 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (289), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Lolo?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lolo 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 5 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lolo's scale — its 5b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lolo'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 Lolo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lolo's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,056 acres it covers and 575 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lolo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lolo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 1 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 575 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lolo, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lolo's boundary and the 6,056 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lolo 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 Lolo's 6,056 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Missoula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Missoula 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 Missoula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lolo's 6,056 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lolo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,056 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Lolo-wide figureread your own land →
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