Kicking Horse, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kicking 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 Kicking 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 Kicking Horse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kicking Horse — the short answer
Kicking Horse, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Kicking Horse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kicking Horse's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kicking Horse
Each reading below is measured for Kicking Horse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKicking Horse runs about 169 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
MeasuredKicking Horse 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 Kicking Horse is in
Kicking Horse sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kicking Horse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Kicking Horse
Every plant below cleared Kicking Horse's own zone 6a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kicking Horse?
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 Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Kicking Horse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kicking Horse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 20N19W19DDA 01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 20N19W19DAA 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- KICKING HORSE JOB CORPS CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SMITH'S AUTO SALVAGEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 20N19W07DBB 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 20N20W28AAA 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- MDOT RONANUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- 19N20W13CCA 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- TIMBERLANE AUTOBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- MOUNTAIN WEST CO OP RONANUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- STEDJE BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- GEORGES BP USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kicking 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 Kicking Horse.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Kicking Horse
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kicking Horse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kicking Horse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kicking Horse, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Kicking Horse. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Kicking 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 Kicking Horse average
Your land is one point inside Kicking Horse
Everything above resolves to Kicking Horse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Kicking Horse Average
Kicking Horse Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kicking Horse
- ●One soil character for all of Kicking Horse
- ●Frost dates read at Kicking Horse's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kicking Horse's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kicking Horse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kicking Horse, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kicking Horse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kicking Horse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kicking Horse average
How we know this about Kicking 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 Kicking 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 Kicking Horse
When does frost risk typically end in Kicking Horse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kicking Horse typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Kicking Horse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kicking Horse typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kicking Horse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kicking Horse sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 28, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kicking Horse?
The federal record around Kicking Horse is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 I protect my plants from frost in Kicking Horse?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kicking Horse's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kicking 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 Kicking Horse’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kicking Horse's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,546 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kicking Horse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kicking Horse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 12 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kicking Horse, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kicking Horse's boundary and the 1,546 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kicking Horse's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kicking Horse's 1,546 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kicking Horse's 1,546 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kicking 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 1,546 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Kicking Horse-wide figureread your own land →
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