Marion, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Marion, 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 Marion 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 Marion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marion — the short answer
Marion, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 116 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~116
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Marion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marion's 116-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marion
Each reading below is measured for Marion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarion runs about 116 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
MeasuredMarion 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 Marion is in
Marion sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Marion'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 Marion
Every plant below cleared Marion's own zone 4b and its 116-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marion?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — 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 Marion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CABIN CREEK LANDING LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MARION STORE USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HILL TOP HITCHIN POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CANI INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MDOT MARIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- ROGER KESSINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ASHLEY CREEK RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- Blue Grouse GroupMining · 7.4 mi
- Herrigg CreekMining · 7.5 mi
- COMPATIBLE MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- MCGREGOR LAKE RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
Measured from Marion'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 Marion.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marion
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Marion
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 Marion average
Your land is one point inside Marion
Everything above resolves to Marion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Marion Average
Marion Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Marion
- ●One soil character for all of Marion
- ●Frost dates read at Marion's scale: May 26 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marion's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marion, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marion average
How we know this about Marion
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 Marion’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 Marion
When does frost risk typically end in Marion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marion typically lands around May 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Marion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marion typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 116 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marion sees about 116 frost-free days — roughly May 26 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 16 to Sep 5, about 81 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marion?
The federal record around Marion is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Marion?
With about 116 frost-free days between hard freezes, Marion 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 144 to 172 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 26 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Marion's scale — its 4b band and its 116-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marion'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 Marion’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marion's own scale — its own ~116-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,797 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 26 and Sep 19 and the ~116-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marion, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marion's boundary and the 10,797 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~116-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Marion 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 Marion's 10,797 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 Marion's 10,797 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,797 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Marion-wide figureread your own land →
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