Glacier Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Glacier 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 Glacier 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 Glacier Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glacier Colony — the short answer
Glacier Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 304 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 304 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 Glacier Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glacier Colony's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glacier Colony
Each reading below is measured for Glacier Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlacier Colony runs about 144 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
MeasuredGlacier 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 Glacier Colony is in
Glacier Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Glacier Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Glacier Colony
Every plant below cleared Glacier Colony's own zone 4a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glacier Colony?
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 Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Glacier Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glacier Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 35N05W02AA 01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 35N05W01CC 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 35N05W12CC 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 36N05W33CBBC01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 35N05W05DD 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 35N05W05DDD 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 35N05W15DC 01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 36N05W14AC 01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 36N05W14BD 01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 35N05W07BB 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 35N05W20BB 02Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 36N04W22DC 01Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glacier 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 Glacier Colony.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Glacier Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glacier Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glacier Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glacier Colony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glacier Colony — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Glacier 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 Glacier Colony average
Your land is one point inside Glacier Colony
Everything above resolves to Glacier Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 304 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 Glacier Colony Average
Glacier Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Glacier Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Glacier Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Glacier Colony's scale: May 6 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glacier Colony's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glacier Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glacier Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glacier Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glacier Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glacier Colony average
How we know this about Glacier 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 Glacier 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 Glacier Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Glacier Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glacier Colony typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Glacier Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glacier Colony typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glacier Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glacier Colony sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 13, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glacier Colony?
The federal record around Glacier Colony shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Glacier Colony?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Glacier 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Glacier Colony's scale — its 4a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glacier 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 Glacier Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Glacier Colony's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 304 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glacier Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glacier Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Sep 27 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glacier Colony, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glacier Colony's boundary and the 304 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glacier 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 Glacier Colony's 304 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glacier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glacier 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 Glacier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glacier Colony's 304 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glacier 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 304 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Glacier Colony-wide figureread your own land →