Hungry Horse, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hungry Horse, 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 Hungry Horse 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 Hungry Horse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hungry Horse — the short answer
Hungry Horse, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 918 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 918 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 Hungry Horse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hungry Horse's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hungry Horse
Each reading below is measured for Hungry Horse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHungry Horse 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
MeasuredHungry Horse 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 Hungry Horse is in
Hungry Horse sits in the Canadian Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Hungry Horse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Flathead County.
What Grows in Hungry Horse
Every plant below cleared Hungry Horse's own zone 5b and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hungry Horse?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — 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 Hungry Horse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hungry Horse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENEX ZIP TRIP #71Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BETTY CREEK WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SPOTTED BEAR RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HUNGRY HORSE PROJECT USBRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ANNA CREEK WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BR-HUNGRY HORSE DAMSuperfund · 1600 ft
- BOBS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HUNGRY HORSE RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MARTIN CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GLACIER CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GARY SCHAEFFERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- ANACONDA ALUMINUM CO COLUMBIA FALLS REDUCTION PLANTSuperfund · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hungry Horse'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 Hungry Horse.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hungry Horse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hungry Horse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hungry Horse, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hungry Horse — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hungry Horse
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 Hungry Horse average
Your land is one point inside Hungry Horse
Everything above resolves to Hungry Horse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 918 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 Hungry Horse Average
Hungry Horse Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hungry Horse
- ●One soil character for all of Hungry Horse
- ●Frost dates read at Hungry Horse's scale: May 11 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hungry Horse's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hungry Horse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hungry Horse, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hungry Horse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hungry Horse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hungry Horse average
How we know this about Hungry Horse
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 Hungry Horse’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 Hungry Horse
When does frost risk typically end in Hungry Horse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hungry Horse typically lands around May 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Hungry Horse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hungry Horse typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hungry Horse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hungry Horse sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 16, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hungry Horse?
The federal record around Hungry Horse is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 gardeners stretch the season in Hungry Horse?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Hungry Horse 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 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Hungry Horse's scale — its 5b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hungry Horse'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 Hungry Horse’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hungry Horse's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 918 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hungry Horse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hungry Horse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Sep 30 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hungry Horse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hungry Horse's boundary and the 918 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hungry Horse's own centroid, the Canadian RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hungry Horse's 918 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Flathead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Flathead 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 Flathead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hungry Horse's 918 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hungry Horse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 918 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 Hungry Horse-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Growing region
Nearby growing guides