Haugan, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Haugan, 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 Haugan 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 Haugan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Haugan — the short answer
Haugan, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 409 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- 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
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 409 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 5b is Haugan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haugan's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Haugan
Each reading below is measured for Haugan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHaugan 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
MeasuredHaugan sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Haugan is in
Haugan sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Haugan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mineral County.
What Grows in Haugan
Every plant below cleared Haugan's own zone 5b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Haugan?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (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. 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 Haugan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Haugan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SILVER EXPRESS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LINCOLNS SILVER DOLLARUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FORMER MWRR HAUGANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- East Coeur D Alene MineMining · 2.7 mi
- East Coeur D'Alene MineMining · 2.7 mi
- 18 MILE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- RIVERSIDE ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Fox Copper MineMining · 3.1 mi
- Rivers Creek MineMining · 3.2 mi
- Minnick MineMining · 3.2 mi
- Saltese Consolidated MineMining · 3.5 mi
- Black TravelerMining · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haugan'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 Haugan.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Haugan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haugan, Mining runs higher than the national average — 83 sites within ~10 miles of Haugan. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Haugan
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 Haugan average
Your land is one point inside Haugan
Everything above resolves to Haugan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 409 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 Haugan Average
Haugan Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Haugan
- ●One soil character for all of Haugan
- ●Frost dates read at Haugan's scale: May 10 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haugan's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Haugan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haugan, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haugan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haugan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haugan average
How we know this about Haugan
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 Haugan’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 Haugan
When does frost risk typically end in Haugan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haugan typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Haugan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Haugan 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 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Haugan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haugan sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 17, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haugan?
The federal record around Haugan runs heavier than most — 94 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (83), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Haugan?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Haugan 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 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Haugan's scale — its 5b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haugan'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 Haugan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Haugan's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 409 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haugan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Haugan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 1 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Haugan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Haugan's boundary and the 409 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Haugan's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Haugan's 409 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mineral County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mineral 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 Mineral County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Haugan's 409 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Haugan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 409 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Haugan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaHaugan sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides