Lame Deer, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lame Deer, 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 Lame Deer 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 Lame Deer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lame Deer — the short answer
Lame Deer, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 36K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 36K 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 5a is Lame Deer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lame Deer's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lame Deer
Each reading below is measured for Lame Deer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLame Deer runs about 150 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
MeasuredLame Deer sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Lame Deer is in
Lame Deer sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lame Deer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rosebud County.
What Grows in Lame Deer
Every plant below cleared Lame Deer's own zone 5a and its 150-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lame Deer?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — 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 Lame Deer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lame Deer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CADYS GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- OUR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- LAME DEER SCHOOL DIST 6Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TRANSITE PIPE DUMPSuperfund · 2.4 mi
- CHIEF DULL KNIFE COLLEGEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- MORNING STAR ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- LAME DEER HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE LAME DEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- LAME DEER PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS ROAD SHOPBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- NORTHERN CHEYENNE LITTLE WOLF CAPITOL BLDGBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- BIA NORTHERN CHEYENNE AGENCY BLDG 41Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lame Deer'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 Lame Deer.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Lame Deer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lame Deer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lame Deer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lame Deer, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Lame Deer. 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 Lame Deer
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 Lame Deer average
Your land is one point inside Lame Deer
Everything above resolves to Lame Deer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 36K 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 Lame Deer Average
Lame Deer Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lame Deer
- ●One soil character for all of Lame Deer
- ●Frost dates read at Lame Deer's scale: May 7 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lame Deer's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lame Deer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lame Deer, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lame Deer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lame Deer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lame Deer average
How we know this about Lame Deer
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 Lame Deer’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 Lame Deer
When does frost risk typically end in Lame Deer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lame Deer typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Lame Deer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lame Deer typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 150 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lame Deer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lame Deer sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 20, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lame Deer?
The federal record around Lame Deer is a meaningful one — 40 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Lame Deer?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lame Deer's scale — its 5a band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lame Deer'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 Lame Deer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lame Deer's own scale — its own ~150-day season between 28°F freezes, the 35,580 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lame Deer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lame Deer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 4 and the ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lame Deer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lame Deer's boundary and the 35,580 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lame Deer's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lame Deer's 35,580 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rosebud County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rosebud 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 Rosebud County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lame Deer's 35,580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lame Deer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,580 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Lame Deer-wide figureread your own land →
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