Maxville, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Maxville, 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 Maxville 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 Maxville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Maxville — the short answer
Maxville, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 129 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~129
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 5a is Maxville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maxville's 129-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maxville
Each reading below is measured for Maxville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaxville runs about 129 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
MeasuredMaxville sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Maxville is in
Maxville sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Maxville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Granite County.
What Grows in Maxville
Every plant below cleared Maxville's own zone 5a and its 129-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maxville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — 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 Maxville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maxville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Londonderry MineMining · 2600 ft
- OLD BLACKSMITH SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EAGLE STUD MILL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Durand MineMining · 0.8 mi
- Johnson ClaimMining · 0.9 mi
- Mother Vein ClaimMining · 1.0 mi
- Eagle ClaimMining · 1.0 mi
- Maxville DistrictMining · 1.0 mi
- Copper State MineMining · 1.1 mi
- Last Chance MineMining · 1.2 mi
- Twin ButtesMining · 1.2 mi
- Twin Buttes ClaimMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maxville'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 Maxville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maxville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maxville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maxville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 218 sites within ~10 miles of Maxville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Maxville
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 Maxville average
Your land is one point inside Maxville
Everything above resolves to Maxville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Maxville Average
Maxville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Maxville
- ●One soil character for all of Maxville
- ●Frost dates read at Maxville's scale: May 19 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maxville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maxville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maxville, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maxville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maxville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maxville average
How we know this about Maxville
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 Maxville’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 Maxville
When does frost risk typically end in Maxville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maxville typically lands around May 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Maxville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maxville typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 129 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maxville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maxville sees about 129 frost-free days — roughly May 19 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 9 to Sep 11, about 94 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maxville?
The federal record around Maxville runs heavier than most — 233 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (218), the nearest Mining record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Maxville?
With about 129 frost-free days between hard freezes, Maxville 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 157 to 185 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 19 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Maxville's scale — its 5a band and its 129-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maxville'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 Maxville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maxville's own scale — its own ~129-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,463 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maxville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maxville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 19 and Sep 25 and the ~129-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maxville, the closest Mining record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maxville's boundary and the 4,463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~129-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maxville's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Maxville's 4,463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Granite County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Granite 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 Granite County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maxville's 4,463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maxville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.5 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 Maxville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaMaxville sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides