Eagle Creek Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eagle Creek Colony — the short answer
Eagle Creek Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 256 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 256 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 4a is Eagle Creek Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle Creek Colony's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagle Creek Colony
Each reading below is measured for Eagle Creek Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagle Creek Colony runs about 149 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
MeasuredEagle Creek Colony sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Eagle Creek Colony is in
Eagle Creek Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Eagle Creek Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Liberty County.
What Grows in Eagle Creek Colony
Every plant below cleared Eagle Creek Colony's own zone 4a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagle Creek Colony?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Eagle Creek Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagle Creek Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 34N05E35AAAB01Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- 34N05E25ABBB01Nitrate · 8.5 mi
- 34N05E36ABBB01Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 34N05E24DAAA01Nitrate · 8.8 mi
- USBR TIBER DAM CHESTERBrownfields · 9.0 mi
- 34N06E30BABB01Nitrate · 9.1 mi
- 33N05E01CDDC01Nitrate · 9.2 mi
Measured from Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek Colony.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagle Creek Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek Colony average
Your land is one point inside Eagle Creek Colony
Everything above resolves to Eagle Creek Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 256 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 Eagle Creek Colony Average
Eagle Creek Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Eagle Creek Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle Creek Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle Creek Colony's scale: May 5 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle Creek Colony's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagle Creek Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle Creek Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle Creek Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle Creek Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle Creek Colony average
How we know this about Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle Creek Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Creek Colony typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Eagle Creek Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Creek Colony typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagle Creek Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle Creek Colony sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 17, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle Creek Colony?
The federal record around Eagle Creek Colony is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Nitrate record about 8.0 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Eagle Creek Colony?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Eagle Creek Colony 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 5 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Eagle Creek Colony's scale — its 4a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eagle Creek Colony's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 256 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle Creek Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle Creek Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 1 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagle Creek Colony, the closest Nitrate record about 8.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagle Creek Colony's boundary and the 256 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eagle Creek 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 Eagle Creek Colony's 256 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Liberty County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Liberty 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 Liberty County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagle Creek Colony's 256 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagle Creek 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 256 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 8.0 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 Eagle Creek Colony-wide figureread your own land →
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