Wisdom, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and okra — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wisdom, 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 Wisdom 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 Wisdom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wisdom — the short answer
Wisdom, Montana: USDA zone 3a, about 51 days between hard freezes, across 645 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Aug 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~51
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 645 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 3a is Wisdom's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wisdom's 51-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wisdom
Each reading below is measured for Wisdom itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWisdom runs about 51 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
MeasuredWisdom sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a.
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 Wisdom is in
Wisdom sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Wisdom's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaverhead County.
What Grows in Wisdom
Every plant below cleared Wisdom's own zone 3a and its 51-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wisdom?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Aug 9 — 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 Wisdom
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wisdom. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RALPH HUNTLEY & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PINTLER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LARRYS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BEAVERHEAD COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MDOT WISDOM SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH MONTANA TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TUCKERS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Diadem GroupMining · 4.0 mi
- Diadem Group MineMining · 4.0 mi
- Sugar LodeMining · 5.8 mi
- 03S16W36ACDA01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 03S16W09ABBC01Nitrate · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wisdom'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 Wisdom.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Wisdom
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wisdom
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wisdom
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Wisdom
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 Wisdom average
Your land is one point inside Wisdom
Everything above resolves to Wisdom as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 645 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 Wisdom Average
Wisdom Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Wisdom
- ●One soil character for all of Wisdom
- ●Frost dates read at Wisdom's scale: Jun 19 to Aug 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wisdom's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wisdom
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wisdom, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wisdom averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wisdom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wisdom average
How we know this about Wisdom
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 Wisdom’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 Wisdom
When does frost risk typically end in Wisdom?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wisdom typically lands around Jun 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 Jul 10.
When is the first frost in Wisdom?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wisdom typically arrives around Aug 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Jul 26, so the watching starts about Jul 10 — about 51 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wisdom?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wisdom sees about 51 frost-free days — roughly Jun 19 through Aug 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 10 to Jul 26, about 16 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wisdom?
The federal record around Wisdom is a meaningful one — 23 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Wisdom?
With about 51 frost-free days between hard freezes, Wisdom 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 79 to 107 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 19 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Wisdom's scale — its 3a band and its 51-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wisdom'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 Wisdom’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wisdom's own scale — its own ~51-day season between 28°F freezes, the 645 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wisdom's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wisdom's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 19 and Aug 9 and the ~51-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wisdom, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wisdom's boundary and the 645 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3a and a ~51-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wisdom's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wisdom's 645 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaverhead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaverhead 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 Beaverhead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wisdom's 645 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wisdom you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 645 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Wisdom-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWisdom sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides