Whitehall, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Whitehall, 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 Whitehall 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 Whitehall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Whitehall — the short answer
Whitehall, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 451 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 451 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 Whitehall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitehall's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whitehall
Each reading below is measured for Whitehall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhitehall 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
MeasuredWhitehall 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 Whitehall is in
Whitehall sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Whitehall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Whitehall
Every plant below cleared Whitehall's own zone 5a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whitehall?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — 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 Whitehall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whitehall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MDOT CRICKS CAMP SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FORMER MWRR PIEDMONTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- EAST RIDGE MLW SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RALPH HUCKABAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FULL CIRCLE TIREBrownfields · 500 ft
- PATICINI TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HANKS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MAGICLAND SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THE CORNER STORE WHITEHALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TOWN OF WHITEHALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WHITEHALL BODY SHOP & AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 01N04W04ADDA01Nitrate · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitehall'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 Whitehall.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Whitehall
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whitehall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whitehall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitehall, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Whitehall — Mining (64 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Whitehall
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 Whitehall average
Your land is one point inside Whitehall
Everything above resolves to Whitehall as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 451 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 Whitehall Average
Whitehall Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Whitehall
- ●One soil character for all of Whitehall
- ●Frost dates read at Whitehall's scale: May 7 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitehall's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whitehall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitehall, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitehall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitehall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitehall average
How we know this about Whitehall
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 Whitehall’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 Whitehall
When does frost risk typically end in Whitehall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitehall typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Whitehall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whitehall typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whitehall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitehall sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 18, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitehall?
The federal record around Whitehall runs heavier than most — 129 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (64), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Whitehall?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Whitehall 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 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Whitehall's scale — its 5a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitehall'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 Whitehall’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Whitehall's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 451 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitehall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitehall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 2 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whitehall, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whitehall's boundary and the 451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Whitehall's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Whitehall's 451 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Whitehall's 451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whitehall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 451 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 Whitehall-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWhitehall sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides