Montfort, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Montfort, 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 Montfort 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 Montfort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montfort — the short answer
Montfort, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 358 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 358 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 Montfort's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montfort's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montfort
Each reading below is measured for Montfort itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontfort runs about 187 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
MeasuredMontfort 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 Montfort is in
Montfort sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Montfort's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Montfort
Every plant below cleared Montfort's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montfort?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Montfort
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montfort. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GR-06/01W/25-0019Nitrate · 250 ft
- BOWDEN & ALEXANDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- IOCO SPEEDE SHOPPE # 49Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GRANTLAND FS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SCHULT OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- IOWA LAFAYETTE FSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JEWELL OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Mills MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GRANVILLE PAINTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ROBERT A MITCHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Pluemers GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montfort'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 Montfort.
Total Sites
277
within ~10 miles of Montfort
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montfort
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montfort
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montfort, Mining runs higher than the national average — 144 sites within ~10 miles of Montfort. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Montfort
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 Montfort average
Your land is one point inside Montfort
Everything above resolves to Montfort as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 358 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 Montfort Average
Montfort Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Montfort
- ●One soil character for all of Montfort
- ●Frost dates read at Montfort's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montfort's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montfort
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montfort, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montfort averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montfort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montfort average
How we know this about Montfort
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 Montfort’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 Montfort
When does frost risk typically end in Montfort?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montfort typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Montfort?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montfort typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montfort?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montfort sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montfort?
The federal record around Montfort runs heavier than most — 277 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (144), the nearest Nitrate 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 Montfort?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montfort's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montfort'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 Montfort’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Montfort's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 358 acres it covers and 277 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montfort's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montfort's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 277 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montfort, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montfort's boundary and the 358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montfort's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montfort's 358 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montfort's 358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montfort you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Montfort-wide figureread your own land →
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