Starr School, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Starr School, 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 Starr School 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 Starr School — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Starr School — the short answer
Starr School, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~137
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Starr School's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Starr School's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Starr School
Each reading below is measured for Starr School itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStarr School runs about 137 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
MeasuredStarr School 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 Starr School is in
Starr School sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Starr School's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Starr School
Every plant below cleared Starr School's own zone 4a and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Starr School?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — 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 Starr School
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Starr School. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, BROWNING- BILLINGS ROAD DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 33N12W28AAAC01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 33N11W17CDDB01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 32N12W11DACB01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 32N11W05CDCC01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 32N12W07ADDD01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 33N11W34BAAA01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 33N11W22DABB01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 33N11W27DDBA01Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 33N13W35ABDB01Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 33N11W14CCDC01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 32N11W03CBAD01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Starr School'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 Starr School.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Starr School
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Starr School
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Starr School
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Starr School, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Starr School — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Starr School
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 Starr School average
Your land is one point inside Starr School
Everything above resolves to Starr School as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Starr School Average
Starr School Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Starr School
- ●One soil character for all of Starr School
- ●Frost dates read at Starr School's scale: May 10 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Starr School's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Starr School
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Starr School, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Starr School averages can't show:
We read public map data around Starr School — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Starr School average
How we know this about Starr School
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 Starr School’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 Starr School
When does frost risk typically end in Starr School?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Starr School typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Starr School?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Starr School typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Starr School?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Starr School sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 10, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Starr School?
The federal record around Starr School is a meaningful one — 76 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Starr School?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Starr School 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 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Starr School's scale — its 4a band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Starr School'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 Starr School’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Starr School's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,705 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Starr School's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Starr School's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 24 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Starr School, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Starr School's boundary and the 2,705 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Starr School's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Starr School's 2,705 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glacier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glacier 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 Glacier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Starr School's 2,705 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Starr School you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,705 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Starr School-wide figureread your own land →