Judith Gap, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Judith Gap, 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 Judith Gap 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 Judith Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Judith Gap — the short answer
Judith Gap, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 212 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 212 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 Judith Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Judith Gap's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Judith Gap
Each reading below is measured for Judith Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJudith Gap runs about 141 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
MeasuredJudith Gap 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 Judith Gap is in
Judith Gap sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Judith Gap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wheatland County.
What Grows in Judith Gap
Every plant below cleared Judith Gap's own zone 4b and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Judith Gap?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 29 — 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 Judith Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Judith Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SONGERS EXXON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- JUDITH GAP OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FRANK D GAUGLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ROBERT SNELLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SPRING CREEK FOREST PROD INC PLANT SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MALMSTROM AFB L 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB L 8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB L 7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB L 10Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- 12N16E32CC 01Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- BREWINGTON RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- 12N16E19CD 02Nitrate · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Judith Gap'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 Judith Gap.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Judith Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Judith Gap
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 Judith Gap
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 Judith Gap average
Your land is one point inside Judith Gap
Everything above resolves to Judith Gap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 212 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 city 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 Judith Gap Average
Judith Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Judith Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Judith Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Judith Gap's scale: May 11 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Judith Gap's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Judith Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Judith Gap, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Judith Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Judith Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Judith Gap average
How we know this about Judith Gap
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Judith Gap’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Judith Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Judith Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Judith Gap 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 Judith Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Judith Gap typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Judith Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Judith Gap sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 15, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Judith Gap?
The federal record around Judith Gap is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), 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 Judith Gap?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Judith Gap 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 169 to 197 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 Judith Gap's scale — its 4b band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Judith Gap'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 Judith Gap’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Judith Gap's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 212 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Judith Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Judith Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Sep 29 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Judith Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Judith Gap's boundary and the 212 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Judith Gap's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Judith Gap's 212 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wheatland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wheatland 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 Wheatland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Judith Gap's 212 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Judith Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 212 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 Judith Gap-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaJudith Gap sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides