Big Stone Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Big Stone Colony, 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 Big Stone Colony 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 Big Stone Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Stone Colony — the short answer
Big Stone Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 603 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 603 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 Big Stone Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Stone Colony's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Stone Colony
Each reading below is measured for Big Stone Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Stone Colony runs about 161 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
MeasuredBig Stone Colony 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 Big Stone Colony is in
Big Stone Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Big Stone Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cascade County.
What Grows in Big Stone Colony
Every plant below cleared Big Stone Colony's own zone 4b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Stone Colony?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Big Stone Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Stone Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG STONE COLONYCAFO · 0.9 mi
- MINERS MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- TRACY BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HILL TOP COLONYCAFO · 3.2 mi
- AMERICAN BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB I 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- KLASNER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- 20N04E31BCAC01Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- OUTBACK COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- L JOHNSON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB A 9Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- RALPH WARD & SONS AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Stone Colony'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 Big Stone Colony.
Total Sites
432
within ~10 miles of Big Stone Colony
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Stone Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Stone Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Stone Colony, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Big Stone Colony. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Big Stone Colony
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 Big Stone Colony average
Your land is one point inside Big Stone Colony
Everything above resolves to Big Stone Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 603 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 Big Stone Colony Average
Big Stone Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Big Stone Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Big Stone Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Big Stone Colony's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Stone Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Stone Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Stone Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Stone Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Stone Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Stone Colony average
How we know this about Big Stone Colony
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 Big Stone Colony’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 Big Stone Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Big Stone Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Stone Colony typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Big Stone Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Stone Colony typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Stone Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Stone Colony sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 24, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Stone Colony?
The federal record around Big Stone Colony is a meaningful one — 432 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (262), the nearest CAFO record about 0.9 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 I protect my plants from frost in Big Stone Colony?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Stone Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Stone Colony'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 Big Stone Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Stone Colony's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 603 acres it covers and 432 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Stone Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Stone Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 8 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 432 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Stone Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Stone Colony's boundary and the 603 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Stone Colony's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Stone Colony's 603 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cascade County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cascade 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 Cascade County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Stone Colony's 603 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Stone Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 603 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.9 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 Big Stone Colony-wide figureread your own land →