Goldcreek, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Goldcreek, 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 Goldcreek 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 Goldcreek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goldcreek — the short answer
Goldcreek, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 121 days between hard freezes, across 125 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~121
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 125 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 Goldcreek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goldcreek's 121-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goldcreek
Each reading below is measured for Goldcreek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoldcreek runs about 121 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
MeasuredGoldcreek 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 Goldcreek is in
Goldcreek sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Goldcreek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Powell County.
What Grows in Goldcreek
Every plant below cleared Goldcreek's own zone 4b and its 121-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goldcreek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Goldcreek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goldcreek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N11W25CCDD01Nitrate · 950 ft
- 10N11W25CBAC01Nitrate · 2500 ft
- 10N11W36ACDD01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 10N10W31BABA02Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 10N11W35BBBC01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 09N11W01BCAC01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 10N10W19DCCC01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 09N11W11ADCC01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 09N10W04BDBC01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- AT&T GARRISONBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- 09N10W10CDBD01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 09N11W21ACCC01Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goldcreek'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 Goldcreek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goldcreek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goldcreek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goldcreek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Goldcreek — Mining (49 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Goldcreek
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 Goldcreek average
Your land is one point inside Goldcreek
Everything above resolves to Goldcreek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 125 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 Goldcreek Average
Goldcreek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Goldcreek
- ●One soil character for all of Goldcreek
- ●Frost dates read at Goldcreek's scale: May 18 to Sep 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goldcreek's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goldcreek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goldcreek, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goldcreek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goldcreek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goldcreek average
How we know this about Goldcreek
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 Goldcreek’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 Goldcreek
When does frost risk typically end in Goldcreek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goldcreek typically lands around May 18, 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 Jun 8.
When is the first frost in Goldcreek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goldcreek typically arrives around Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 2, so the watching starts about Aug 17 — about 121 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goldcreek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goldcreek sees about 121 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 2, about 86 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goldcreek?
The federal record around Goldcreek runs heavier than most — 86 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (49), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Goldcreek?
With about 121 frost-free days between hard freezes, Goldcreek 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 149 to 177 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Goldcreek's scale — its 4b band and its 121-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goldcreek'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 Goldcreek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goldcreek's own scale — its own ~121-day season between 28°F freezes, the 125 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goldcreek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goldcreek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 16 and the ~121-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goldcreek, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goldcreek's boundary and the 125 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~121-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goldcreek's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goldcreek's 125 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Powell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Powell 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 Powell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goldcreek's 125 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goldcreek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 125 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Goldcreek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaGoldcreek sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides