Hot Springs, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hot Springs, 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 Hot Springs 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 Hot Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hot Springs — the short answer
Hot Springs, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 246 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 246 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 6a is Hot Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hot Springs's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hot Springs
Each reading below is measured for Hot Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHot Springs runs about 161 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
MeasuredHot Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Hot Springs is in
Hot Springs sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Hot Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sanders County.
What Grows in Hot Springs
Every plant below cleared Hot Springs's own zone 6a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hot Springs?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Hot Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hot Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REINERTSON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SPRING STREET EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 21N24W04DABD01Nitrate · 850 ft
- 21N24W04ADAB01Nitrate · 950 ft
- TIMBERLINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HOT SPRINGS SCHOOL DIST 14 JUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HOLMBERG RANCH SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MEULIS TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TOWN OF HOT SPRINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 21N24W04DBD 01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- JESSE HARRISBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 21N24W04DBC 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hot Springs'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 Hot Springs.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Hot Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hot Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hot Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hot Springs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 108 sites within ~10 miles of Hot Springs. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hot Springs
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 Hot Springs average
Your land is one point inside Hot Springs
Everything above resolves to Hot Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 246 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 Hot Springs Average
Hot Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hot Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Hot Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Hot Springs's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hot Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hot Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hot Springs, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hot Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hot Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hot Springs average
How we know this about Hot Springs
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 Hot Springs’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 Hot Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Hot Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hot Springs typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Hot Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hot Springs typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hot Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hot Springs sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 23, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hot Springs?
The federal record around Hot Springs is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (108), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hot Springs?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hot Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hot Springs'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 Hot Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hot Springs's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 246 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hot Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hot Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 7 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hot Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hot Springs's boundary and the 246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hot Springs's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hot Springs's 246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sanders County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sanders 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 Sanders County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hot Springs's 246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hot Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 246 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hot Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaHot Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.