Silver Star, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Silver Star, 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 Silver Star 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 Silver Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Silver Star — the short answer
Silver Star, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 294 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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
- Town area
- 294 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 Silver Star's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Silver Star's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Silver Star
Each reading below is measured for Silver Star itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSilver Star 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
MeasuredSilver Star 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 Silver Star is in
Silver Star sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Silver Star's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Silver Star
Every plant below cleared Silver Star's own zone 5a and its 143-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Silver Star?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Silver Star
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Silver Star. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Golden RodMining · 1700 ft
- 02S06W12CCCC01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Hudson MineMining · 1.3 mi
- Hudson GroupMining · 1.3 mi
- Victoria MineMining · 1.5 mi
- Broadway MineMining · 1.6 mi
- Keystone MineMining · 1.8 mi
- Galena MineMining · 2.1 mi
- Rhyolite MineMining · 2.1 mi
- Silver Star ChromiteMining · 2.1 mi
- Edgerton MineMining · 2.1 mi
- Mohawk MineMining · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Silver Star'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 Silver Star.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Silver Star
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Silver Star
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Silver Star, Mining runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Silver Star. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Silver Star
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 Silver Star average
Your land is one point inside Silver Star
Everything above resolves to Silver Star as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 294 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 Silver Star Average
Silver Star Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Silver Star
- ●One soil character for all of Silver Star
- ●Frost dates read at Silver Star's scale: May 8 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Silver Star's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Silver Star
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Silver Star, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Silver Star averages can't show:
We read public map data around Silver Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Silver Star average
How we know this about Silver Star
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 Silver Star’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 Silver Star
When does frost risk typically end in Silver Star?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Star 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 Silver Star?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Star 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 Silver Star?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Silver Star 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 Silver Star?
The federal record around Silver Star runs heavier than most — 92 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (71), the nearest Mining record about 0.3 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 Silver Star?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Silver Star 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 Silver Star's scale — its 5a band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Silver Star'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 Silver Star’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Silver Star's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 294 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Silver Star's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Silver Star's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 28 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Silver Star, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Silver Star's boundary and the 294 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Silver Star's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Silver Star's 294 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Silver Star's 294 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Silver Star you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 294 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Silver Star-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaSilver Star sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides