Townsend, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Townsend, 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 Townsend 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 Townsend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Townsend — the short answer
Townsend, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 980 acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 980 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 Townsend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Townsend's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Townsend
Each reading below is measured for Townsend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTownsend 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
MeasuredTownsend 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 Townsend is in
Townsend sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Townsend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Broadwater County.
What Grows in Townsend
Every plant below cleared Townsend'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 Townsend?
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 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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Townsend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Townsend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWNSEND AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- VISOCAN PETROLEUM POP INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ABANDONED GAS STATION TOWNSENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- VISOCAN PETROLEUM CO TOWNSENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- TOWNSEND LUMBER COBrownfields · 450 ft
- BROADWATER GRAIN SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- TOWNSEND FULL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TOWNSEND SINCLAIR 419Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 07N02E31DB 01Nitrate · 850 ft
- TOWN PUMP INC TOWNSENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BLAISDELL CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN SUPPLY INC TOWNSENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Townsend'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 Townsend.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Townsend
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Townsend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Townsend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Townsend, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Townsend — Mining (45 sites) and Nitrate (54 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Townsend
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 Townsend average
Your land is one point inside Townsend
Everything above resolves to Townsend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 980 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 Townsend Average
Townsend Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Townsend
- ●One soil character for all of Townsend
- ●Frost dates read at Townsend's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Townsend's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Townsend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Townsend, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Townsend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Townsend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Townsend average
How we know this about Townsend
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 Townsend’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 Townsend
When does frost risk typically end in Townsend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Townsend 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 Townsend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Townsend 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 Townsend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Townsend 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 Townsend?
The federal record around Townsend runs heavier than most — 139 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Townsend?
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 Townsend's scale — its 4b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Townsend'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 Townsend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Townsend's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 980 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Townsend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Townsend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 7 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Townsend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Townsend's boundary and the 980 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 Townsend's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Townsend's 980 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 Townsend's 980 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Townsend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 980 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 Townsend-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaTownsend sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides