Manhattan, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Manhattan, 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 Manhattan 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 Manhattan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Manhattan — the short answer
Manhattan, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- 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
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Manhattan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manhattan's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manhattan
Each reading below is measured for Manhattan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManhattan runs about 145 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
MeasuredManhattan 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 Manhattan is in
Manhattan sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Manhattan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gallatin County.
What Grows in Manhattan
Every plant below cleared Manhattan's own zone 4b and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manhattan?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (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. 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 Manhattan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manhattan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOUMA TRANSFER INC N 5THUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- WELLHOUSER YAMAAHAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MANHATTAN H SBrownfields · 850 ft
- MANHATTAN SCHOOL DIST 3Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GALLATIN FARMERS CO MANHATTANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BIG SKY CARVERS MANHATTANBrownfields · 1300 ft
- FORMER CASE MACHINERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HARLOWS SCHOOL BUS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DOUMA TRANSFER INC YADON ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- THRIFTWAY SUPER STOP 12 (ME & JAN'S MINI MART III)Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CRASH CHAMPIONS - MANHATTANBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manhattan'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 Manhattan.
Total Sites
278
within ~10 miles of Manhattan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manhattan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manhattan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manhattan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Manhattan — Nitrate (182 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Manhattan
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 Manhattan average
Your land is one point inside Manhattan
Everything above resolves to Manhattan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Manhattan Average
Manhattan Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Manhattan
- ●One soil character for all of Manhattan
- ●Frost dates read at Manhattan's scale: May 9 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manhattan's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manhattan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manhattan, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manhattan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manhattan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manhattan average
How we know this about Manhattan
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 Manhattan’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 Manhattan
When does frost risk typically end in Manhattan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manhattan typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Manhattan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manhattan 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 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manhattan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manhattan sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 17, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manhattan?
The federal record around Manhattan is a meaningful one — 278 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (182), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Manhattan?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Manhattan 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Manhattan's scale — its 4b band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manhattan'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 Manhattan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Manhattan's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,123 acres it covers and 278 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manhattan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manhattan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 1 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 278 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manhattan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manhattan's boundary and the 1,123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manhattan's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manhattan's 1,123 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gallatin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gallatin 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 Gallatin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manhattan's 1,123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manhattan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,123 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Manhattan-wide figureread your own land →
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