Toston, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Toston, 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 Toston 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 Toston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Toston — the short answer
Toston, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 4b is Toston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Toston's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Toston
Each reading below is measured for Toston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredToston runs about 148 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
MeasuredToston 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 Toston is in
Toston sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Toston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Broadwater County.
What Grows in Toston
Every plant below cleared Toston's own zone 4b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Toston?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Toston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Toston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MISSOURI RIVER GRAINBrownfields · 2000 ft
- 05N02E23CA 04Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 05N02E23DBCA01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- SAMUEL F KIRKSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 05N02E22CBBA01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 05N02E35DAB 01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- KOEHNKE & SONS INC FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 05N02E21AD 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 05N02E33DACA01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 05N02E28CD 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- CleoMining · 2.4 mi
- 05N02E10CBCC01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Toston'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 Toston.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Toston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Toston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Toston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Toston — Nitrate (78 sites) and Mining (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Toston
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 Toston average
Your land is one point inside Toston
Everything above resolves to Toston 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 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 Toston Average
Toston Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Toston
- ●One soil character for all of Toston
- ●Frost dates read at Toston's scale: May 6 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Toston's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Toston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Toston, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Toston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Toston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Toston average
How we know this about Toston
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 Toston’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 Toston
When does frost risk typically end in Toston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Toston typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Toston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Toston typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Toston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Toston sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 17, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Toston?
The federal record around Toston shows 99 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Toston?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Toston 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Toston's scale — its 4b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Toston'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 Toston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Toston's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,663 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Toston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Toston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 1 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Toston, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Toston's boundary and the 1,663 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Toston's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Toston's 1,663 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Broadwater County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Broadwater 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 Broadwater County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Toston's 1,663 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Toston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,663 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Toston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaToston sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides