Park City, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Park 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 Park 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 Park City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Park City — the short answer
Park City, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- 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 Park City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Park City's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Park City
Each reading below is measured for Park City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPark City runs about 161 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
MeasuredPark City 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 Park City is in
Park City sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Park City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stillwater County.
What Grows in Park City
Every plant below cleared Park City's own zone 4b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Park City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Park City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Park City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ZIP TRIP 50Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ERVIN AMENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HENRY E STEINMENTZUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KWIK STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ZIP TRIPBrownfields · 2400 ft
- MADSON BIRNEY - WELLNitrate · 2600 ft
- COSSITT ANN - WELLNitrate · 0.6 mi
- BULLSEYE FEEDLOT - PARK CITY UNITCAFO · 0.7 mi
- LOWELL BRYCE - WELLNitrate · 1.1 mi
- LAWVER TERRY - WELLNitrate · 1.3 mi
- LOWERY JIM - WELLNitrate · 1.3 mi
- WARK CHARLES - WELLNitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Park 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 Park City.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Park City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Park City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Park City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Park City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Park City — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (78 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Park 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 Park City average
Your land is one point inside Park City
Everything above resolves to Park City 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 Park City Average
Park City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Park City
- ●One soil character for all of Park City
- ●Frost dates read at Park City's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Park City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Park City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Park City, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Park City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Park City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Park City average
How we know this about Park City
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 Park 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 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 Park City
When does frost risk typically end in Park City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Park City typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Park City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Park City typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Park City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Park City sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 23, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Park City?
The federal record around Park City is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Park City?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Park City's scale — its 4b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Park 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 Park City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Park City's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,007 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Park City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Park City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 7 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Park City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Park City's boundary and the 1,007 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Park 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 Park City's 1,007 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stillwater County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stillwater 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 Stillwater County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Park City's 1,007 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Park 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 1,007 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Park City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaPark City sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.