Hilger, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hilger, 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 Hilger 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 Hilger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hilger — the short answer
Hilger, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 179 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 179 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 Hilger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hilger's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hilger
Each reading below is measured for Hilger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHilger runs about 154 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHilger 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 Hilger is in
Hilger sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hilger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fergus County.
What Grows in Hilger
Every plant below cleared Hilger's own zone 4b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hilger?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Hilger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hilger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER HILGER COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 18N19E31CCC 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 17N18E01ABAC01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB O 8Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB M 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB O 9Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- America MineMining · 2.4 mi
- 17N18E23ADB 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 18N19E33AAA 01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 18N19E19BBB 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 18N18E15BDA 01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 17N19E34CBAA01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hilger'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 Hilger.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hilger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hilger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hilger, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hilger — Mining (33 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hilger
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 Hilger average
Your land is one point inside Hilger
Everything above resolves to Hilger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 179 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 Hilger Average
Hilger Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hilger
- ●One soil character for all of Hilger
- ●Frost dates read at Hilger's scale: May 4 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hilger's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hilger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hilger, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hilger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hilger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hilger average
How we know this about Hilger
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 Hilger’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 Hilger
When does frost risk typically end in Hilger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hilger typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Hilger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hilger typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hilger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hilger sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 21, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hilger?
The federal record around Hilger runs heavier than most — 81 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Hilger?
From about Sep 5 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hilger's scale — its 4b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hilger'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 Hilger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hilger's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 179 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hilger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hilger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 5 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hilger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hilger's boundary and the 179 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hilger's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hilger's 179 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fergus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fergus 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 Fergus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hilger's 179 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hilger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 179 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hilger-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaHilger sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides