Little Bitterroot Lake, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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: zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and pumpkin. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Little Bitterroot Lake, 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 Little Bitterroot Lake 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 Little Bitterroot Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Bitterroot Lake — the short answer
Little Bitterroot Lake, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 94 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~94
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Little Bitterroot Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Bitterroot Lake's 94-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Bitterroot Lake
Each reading below is measured for Little Bitterroot Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Bitterroot Lake runs about 94 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
MeasuredLittle Bitterroot Lake 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 Little Bitterroot Lake is in
Little Bitterroot Lake sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Little Bitterroot Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Flathead County is mostly Canadian Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Little Bitterroot Lake
Every plant below cleared Little Bitterroot Lake's own zone 4b and its 94-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Bitterroot Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Little Bitterroot Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Bitterroot Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARION STORE USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Blue Grouse GroupMining · 3.8 mi
- Herrigg CreekMining · 3.8 mi
- HILL TOP HITCHIN POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- CANI INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- CABIN CREEK LANDING LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MDOT MARIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- ROGER KESSINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- MCGREGOR LAKE RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- COMPATIBLE MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 8.4 mi
- ASHLEY CREEK RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- WOODRINGS LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
Measured from Little Bitterroot Lake'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 Little Bitterroot Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Bitterroot Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Bitterroot Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Little Bitterroot Lake
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 Little Bitterroot Lake average
Your land is one point inside Little Bitterroot Lake
Everything above resolves to Little Bitterroot Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Little Bitterroot Lake Average
Little Bitterroot Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Little Bitterroot Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Little Bitterroot Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Little Bitterroot Lake's scale: Jun 4 to Sep 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Bitterroot Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Bitterroot Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Bitterroot Lake, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Bitterroot Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Bitterroot Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Bitterroot Lake average
How we know this about Little Bitterroot Lake
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 Little Bitterroot Lake’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 Little Bitterroot Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Little Bitterroot Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Bitterroot Lake typically lands around Jun 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Little Bitterroot Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Bitterroot Lake typically arrives around Sep 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 23, so the watching starts about Aug 7 — about 94 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Bitterroot Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Bitterroot Lake sees about 94 frost-free days — roughly Jun 4 through Sep 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 25 to Aug 23, about 59 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Bitterroot Lake?
The federal record around Little Bitterroot Lake is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 miles 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 Little Bitterroot Lake?
With about 94 frost-free days between hard freezes, Little Bitterroot Lake 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 122 to 150 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Little Bitterroot Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 94-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Bitterroot Lake'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 Little Bitterroot Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little Bitterroot Lake's own scale — its own ~94-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,393 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Bitterroot Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Bitterroot Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 4 and Sep 6 and the ~94-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Bitterroot Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Bitterroot Lake's boundary and the 5,393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~94-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Little Bitterroot Lake sits in the Northern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little Bitterroot Lake's 5,393 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 Little Bitterroot Lake's 5,393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Bitterroot Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,393 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 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 Little Bitterroot Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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