Miles City, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Miles City, 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 Miles City 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 Miles City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Miles City — the short answer
Miles City, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 4a is Miles City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Miles City's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Miles City
Each reading below is measured for Miles City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiles City runs about 168 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMiles City sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Miles City is in
Miles City sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Miles City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Custer County.
What Grows in Miles City
Every plant below cleared Miles City's own zone 4a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Miles City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Miles City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Miles City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARLS CONOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CHEVRON GAS STATION & BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BN FORMERLY CENEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PAXSONS CARPETSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CUSTER MOTORS USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN RCAG MILES CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STATE FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PLAINS & PRAIRIE IMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ROUNDUP POWDER CO INC MILES CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PEARCY AVIATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN VOR MILES CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MILES CITY AIRPORT USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Miles City'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 Miles City.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Miles City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Miles City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Miles City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Miles City, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Miles City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Miles City
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 Miles City average
Your land is one point inside Miles City
Everything above resolves to Miles City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Miles City Average
Miles City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Miles City
- ●One soil character for all of Miles City
- ●Frost dates read at Miles City's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Miles City's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Miles City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Miles City, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Miles City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Miles City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Miles City average
How we know this about Miles City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Miles City’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Miles City
When does frost risk typically end in Miles City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Miles City typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Miles City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Miles City typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Miles City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Miles City sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 25, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Miles City?
The federal record around Miles City is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Miles City?
From about Sep 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Miles City's scale — its 4a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Miles City'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 Miles City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Miles City's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,152 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Miles City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Miles City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 9 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Miles City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Miles City's boundary and the 2,152 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Miles City's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Miles City's 2,152 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Custer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Custer 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 Custer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Miles City's 2,152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Miles City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,152 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 Miles City-wide figureread your own land →
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