Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor pumpkin, cranberry, french tarragon, and zucchini, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anaconda-Deer Lodge County — the short answer
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 59 days between hard freezes, across 471K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Aug 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~59
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 471K 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 4b is Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's 59-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Each reading below is measured for Anaconda-Deer Lodge County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnaconda-Deer Lodge County runs about 59 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
MeasuredAnaconda-Deer Lodge County sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County is in
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's own centroid rather than borrowed from Deer Lodge County.
What Grows in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Every plant below cleared Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's own zone 4b and its 59-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Aug 19 — 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mill Creek OccurenceMining · 2.7 mi
- Main Range BerylMining · 4.1 mi
- Garrity Hill AreaMining · 4.5 mi
- Jetty MineMining · 5.1 mi
- Silver Hill MineMining · 5.3 mi
- Cameron MineMining · 5.4 mi
- Sunshine MineMining · 5.6 mi
- Silver HeartMining · 5.7 mi
- ANACONDA JOB CORPSBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- ANACONDA CIVIL CONSERVATION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Okoreka MineMining · 6.0 mi
- Okoreaka MineMining · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anaconda-Deer Lodge County'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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County. 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County average
Your land is one point inside Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Everything above resolves to Anaconda-Deer Lodge County as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 471K 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Average
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
- ●One soil character for all of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
- ●Frost dates read at Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's scale: Jun 21 to Aug 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anaconda-Deer Lodge County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anaconda-Deer Lodge County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County average
How we know this about Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County’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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
When does frost risk typically end in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County typically lands around Jun 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County typically arrives around Aug 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 5, so the watching starts about Jul 20 — about 59 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anaconda-Deer Lodge County sees about 59 frost-free days — roughly Jun 21 through Aug 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 12 to Aug 5, about 24 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County?
The federal record around Anaconda-Deer Lodge County runs heavier than most — 130 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (77), the nearest Mining record about 2.7 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County?
With about 59 frost-free days between hard freezes, Anaconda-Deer Lodge County 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 87 to 115 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 21 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's scale — its 4b band and its 59-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County'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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's own scale — its own ~59-day season between 28°F freezes, the 471,477 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 21 and Aug 19 and the ~59-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, the closest Mining record about 2.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's boundary and the 471,477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~59-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's 471,477 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Deer Lodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Deer Lodge 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 Deer Lodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anaconda-Deer Lodge County's 471,477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 471,477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 2.7 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 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaAnaconda-Deer Lodge County sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides