Scobey, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scobey, 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 Scobey 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 Scobey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scobey — the short answer
Scobey, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 471 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~143
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 471 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 3b is Scobey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scobey's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scobey
Each reading below is measured for Scobey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScobey runs about 143 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
MeasuredScobey sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Scobey is in
Scobey sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Scobey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Daniels County.
What Grows in Scobey
Every plant below cleared Scobey's own zone 3b and its 143-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scobey?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Scobey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scobey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEIBRANDS SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- PIONEER INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DANIELS COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GETSCHELS SUPER VALUUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DANIELS COUNTY SCHOOL DIST 1Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SCOBEY HIGH SCHOOLSBrownfields · 950 ft
- PRO CO-OP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CROMWELLS CONVENIENCE & PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BN SCOBEY DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DONS WESTLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BERNIES GLASS & BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RASMUS NELSON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scobey'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 Scobey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scobey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scobey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scobey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scobey — Nitrate (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (25 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Scobey
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 Scobey average
Your land is one point inside Scobey
Everything above resolves to Scobey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 471 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 Scobey Average
Scobey Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Scobey
- ●One soil character for all of Scobey
- ●Frost dates read at Scobey's scale: May 8 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scobey's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scobey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scobey, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scobey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scobey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scobey average
How we know this about Scobey
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 Scobey’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 Scobey
When does frost risk typically end in Scobey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scobey typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Scobey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scobey typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 143 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scobey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scobey sees about 143 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 14, about 108 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scobey?
The federal record around Scobey is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scobey?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Scobey 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 171 to 199 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Scobey's scale — its 3b band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scobey'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 Scobey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scobey's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 471 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scobey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scobey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 28 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scobey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scobey's boundary and the 471 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scobey's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scobey's 471 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Daniels County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Daniels 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 Daniels County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scobey's 471 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scobey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 471 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scobey-wide figureread your own land →
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