Jordan, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Jordan, 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 Jordan 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 Jordan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jordan — the short answer
Jordan, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 223 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- 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
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 223 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 Jordan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jordan's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jordan
Each reading below is measured for Jordan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJordan runs about 145 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
MeasuredJordan 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 Jordan is in
Jordan sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Jordan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garfield County.
What Grows in Jordan
Every plant below cleared Jordan's own zone 4a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jordan?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Jordan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jordan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIONEER GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- 6 DS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FELLMANS HARDWARE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- LOREN J KIRBYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FITCH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- KARLS HELL CREEK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- JORDAN WILDLIFE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MDOT JORDANUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SNOWBELT ANGUS RANCH COUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ROSS RANCH & LIVESTOCK COUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- GARFIELD CO DIST HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MDOT 41 1701 JORDANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jordan'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 Jordan.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jordan
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Jordan
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 Jordan average
Your land is one point inside Jordan
Everything above resolves to Jordan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 223 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 Jordan Average
Jordan Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Jordan
- ●One soil character for all of Jordan
- ●Frost dates read at Jordan's scale: May 8 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jordan's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jordan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jordan, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jordan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jordan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jordan average
How we know this about Jordan
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 Jordan’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 Jordan
When does frost risk typically end in Jordan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jordan typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Jordan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jordan 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 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jordan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jordan sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 16, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jordan?
The federal record around Jordan is light — 22 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (13), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Jordan?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Jordan 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Jordan's scale — its 4a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jordan'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 Jordan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jordan's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 223 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jordan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jordan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 30 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jordan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jordan's boundary and the 223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jordan's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jordan's 223 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garfield 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 Garfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jordan's 223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jordan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 223 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 Jordan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaJordan sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.