Walkerville, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Walkerville, 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 Walkerville 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 Walkerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Walkerville — the short answer
Walkerville, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Walkerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walkerville's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walkerville
Each reading below is measured for Walkerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWalkerville runs about 127 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
MeasuredWalkerville 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 Walkerville is in
Walkerville sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Walkerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Silver Bow County.
What Grows in Walkerville
Every plant below cleared Walkerville's own zone 5a and its 127-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Walkerville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Walkerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walkerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alice MineMining · 1400 ft
- Silver LickMining · 1500 ft
- Rainbow ProjectMining · 1600 ft
- Snowdrift MineMining · 1700 ft
- MarieMining · 1700 ft
- GlengarryMining · 1900 ft
- Marget Ann MineMining · 2100 ft
- 03N08W01ACAC01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- MoultonMining · 2300 ft
- Moulton MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Goldsmith MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Valdemere MineMining · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walkerville'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 Walkerville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walkerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walkerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walkerville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 190 sites within ~10 miles of Walkerville. 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 Walkerville
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 Walkerville average
Your land is one point inside Walkerville
Everything above resolves to Walkerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Walkerville Average
Walkerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Walkerville
- ●One soil character for all of Walkerville
- ●Frost dates read at Walkerville's scale: May 19 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walkerville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walkerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walkerville, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walkerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walkerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walkerville average
How we know this about Walkerville
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 Walkerville’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 Walkerville
When does frost risk typically end in Walkerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walkerville typically lands around May 19, 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 Jun 9.
When is the first frost in Walkerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walkerville typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walkerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walkerville sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 19 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 9 to Sep 9, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walkerville?
The federal record around Walkerville runs heavier than most — 446 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (190), 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 Walkerville?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Walkerville 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 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 19 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Walkerville's scale — its 5a band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walkerville'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 Walkerville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Walkerville's own scale — its own ~127-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,425 acres it covers and 446 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walkerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walkerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 19 and Sep 23 and the ~127-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 446 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walkerville, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walkerville's boundary and the 1,425 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~127-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Walkerville's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Walkerville's 1,425 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Silver Bow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Silver Bow 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 Silver Bow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walkerville's 1,425 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walkerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,425 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 Walkerville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWalkerville sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides