Hidden Lake Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hidden Lake Colony — the short answer
Hidden Lake Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 145 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 145 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 Hidden Lake Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hidden Lake Colony's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hidden Lake Colony
Each reading below is measured for Hidden Lake Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHidden Lake Colony runs about 142 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
MeasuredHidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony is in
Hidden Lake Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hidden Lake Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Hidden Lake Colony
Every plant below cleared Hidden Lake Colony's own zone 4a and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hidden Lake Colony?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Hidden Lake Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hidden Lake Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIDDEN LAKE COLONY CAFO/AFOCAFO · 1000 ft
- HIDDEN LAKE COLONYCAFO · 1000 ft
- HIDDEN LAKE COLONYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 33N07W22BBDA01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 33N07W22BBDD01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 34N07W30BCCC01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- SCHLUMBERGER WELLS SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- GRASS WINDS VETERINARY CLINICBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- NORTHWESTERN CORP CUT BANKBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- JIMS AUTOBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- 34N08W25ABCD01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 33N07W02BBDC01Nitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Hidden Lake Colony
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hidden Lake Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hidden Lake Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hidden Lake Colony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hidden Lake Colony — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony average
Your land is one point inside Hidden Lake Colony
Everything above resolves to Hidden Lake Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 145 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 Hidden Lake Colony Average
Hidden Lake Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Hidden Lake Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Hidden Lake Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Hidden Lake Colony's scale: May 7 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hidden Lake Colony's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hidden Lake Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hidden Lake Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hidden Lake Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hidden Lake Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hidden Lake Colony average
How we know this about Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Hidden Lake Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hidden Lake Colony typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Hidden Lake Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hidden Lake Colony typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hidden Lake Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hidden Lake Colony sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 12, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hidden Lake Colony?
The federal record around Hidden Lake Colony is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest CAFO record about 0.2 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 Hidden Lake Colony?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Hidden Lake 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Hidden Lake Colony's scale — its 4a band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hidden Lake Colony's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 145 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hidden Lake Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hidden Lake Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 26 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hidden Lake Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hidden Lake Colony's boundary and the 145 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hidden Lake 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 Hidden Lake Colony's 145 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 Hidden Lake Colony's 145 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hidden Lake 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 145 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO 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 Hidden Lake Colony-wide figureread your own land →