Martinsdale, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Martinsdale, 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 Martinsdale 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 Martinsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Martinsdale — the short answer
Martinsdale, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 558 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 558 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 Martinsdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Martinsdale's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Martinsdale
Each reading below is measured for Martinsdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMartinsdale runs about 133 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
MeasuredMartinsdale 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 Martinsdale is in
Martinsdale sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Martinsdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Meagher County.
What Grows in Martinsdale
Every plant below cleared Martinsdale's own zone 4b and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Martinsdale?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — 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 Martinsdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Martinsdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWALLOWS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CHECKERBOARD INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MARTINSDALE REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Montana Copper ProspectMining · 8.3 mi
Measured from Martinsdale'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 Martinsdale.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Martinsdale
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.
Check your specific parcel in Martinsdale
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 Martinsdale average
Your land is one point inside Martinsdale
Everything above resolves to Martinsdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 558 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 Martinsdale Average
Martinsdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Martinsdale
- ●One soil character for all of Martinsdale
- ●Frost dates read at Martinsdale's scale: May 14 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Martinsdale's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Martinsdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Martinsdale, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Martinsdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Martinsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Martinsdale average
How we know this about Martinsdale
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 Martinsdale’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 Martinsdale
When does frost risk typically end in Martinsdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsdale typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Martinsdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsdale typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Martinsdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Martinsdale sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 10, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Martinsdale?
The federal record around Martinsdale is light — 4 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Martinsdale?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Martinsdale 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Martinsdale's scale — its 4b band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Martinsdale'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 Martinsdale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Martinsdale's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 558 acres it covers and 4 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Martinsdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Martinsdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 24 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Martinsdale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Martinsdale's boundary and the 558 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Martinsdale's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Martinsdale's 558 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Meagher County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Meagher 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 Meagher County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Martinsdale's 558 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Martinsdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 558 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Martinsdale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaMartinsdale sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides