Turah, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Turah, 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 Turah 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 Turah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Turah — the short answer
Turah, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 854 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 854 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 5b is Turah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Turah's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Turah
Each reading below is measured for Turah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTurah runs about 154 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
MeasuredTurah sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Turah is in
Turah sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Turah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Missoula County.
What Grows in Turah
Every plant below cleared Turah's own zone 5b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Turah?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Turah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Turah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MDOT CLINTON SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- FORMER MWRR CLINTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- BN CLINTON MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- WESTON RANCHES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- 13N18W34AABC01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- TURAH STORE & CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 12N18W12BAAB02Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- US FAA MISSOULA SECTOR FIELD OFFICEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 12N18W12BADD01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 13N18W27BABB03Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- MILLTOWN RESERVOIR SEDIMENTSSuperfund · 3.2 mi
- 12N17W18ADDB01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Turah'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 Turah.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Turah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Turah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Turah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Turah — Mining (38 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Turah
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 Turah average
Your land is one point inside Turah
Everything above resolves to Turah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 854 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 Turah Average
Turah Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Turah
- ●One soil character for all of Turah
- ●Frost dates read at Turah's scale: May 4 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Turah's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Turah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Turah, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Turah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Turah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Turah average
How we know this about Turah
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 Turah’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 Turah
When does frost risk typically end in Turah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Turah typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Turah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Turah typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Turah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Turah sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 21, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Turah?
The federal record around Turah runs heavier than most — 345 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (223), 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 Turah?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Turah's scale — its 5b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Turah'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 Turah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Turah's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 854 acres it covers and 345 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Turah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Turah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 5 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 345 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Turah, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Turah's boundary and the 854 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Turah's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Turah's 854 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Missoula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Missoula 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 Missoula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Turah's 854 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Turah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 854 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 Turah-wide figureread your own land →