Lodge Grass, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lodge Grass, 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 Lodge Grass 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 Lodge Grass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lodge Grass — the short answer
Lodge Grass, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 165 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 165 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 Lodge Grass's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lodge Grass's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lodge Grass
Each reading below is measured for Lodge Grass itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLodge Grass runs about 149 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
MeasuredLodge Grass 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 Lodge Grass is in
Lodge Grass sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lodge Grass's own centroid rather than borrowed from Big Horn County.
What Grows in Lodge Grass
Every plant below cleared Lodge Grass's own zone 4b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lodge Grass?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Lodge Grass
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lodge Grass. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LODGE GRASS SCHOOL DIST 27Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 06S35E13AC 01Nitrate · 850 ft
- 06S35E13BA 01Nitrate · 950 ft
- MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORATION LODGE GRASSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE LODGE GRASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- THE STATION LODGE GRASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BIG HORN COUNTY ELECTRIC CO-OPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BIG HORN COUNTY ROAD DEPT LODGE GRASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 06S35E12DD 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- LODGE GRASS DRUM SITEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LODGE GRASS DRUMSSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- 06S35E13CDCB01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lodge Grass'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 Lodge Grass.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Lodge Grass
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lodge Grass
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lodge Grass
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lodge Grass, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Lodge Grass. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lodge Grass
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 Lodge Grass average
Your land is one point inside Lodge Grass
Everything above resolves to Lodge Grass as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 165 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 Lodge Grass Average
Lodge Grass Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lodge Grass
- ●One soil character for all of Lodge Grass
- ●Frost dates read at Lodge Grass's scale: May 6 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lodge Grass's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lodge Grass
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lodge Grass, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lodge Grass averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lodge Grass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lodge Grass average
How we know this about Lodge Grass
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 Lodge Grass’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 Lodge Grass
When does frost risk typically end in Lodge Grass?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lodge Grass typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Lodge Grass?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lodge Grass typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lodge Grass?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lodge Grass sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 18, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lodge Grass?
The federal record around Lodge Grass is a meaningful one — 74 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Lodge Grass?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lodge Grass 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lodge Grass's scale — its 4b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lodge Grass'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 Lodge Grass’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lodge Grass's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 165 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lodge Grass's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lodge Grass's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 2 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lodge Grass, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lodge Grass's boundary and the 165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lodge Grass's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lodge Grass's 165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Big Horn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Big Horn 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 Big Horn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lodge Grass's 165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lodge Grass you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 165 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 Lodge Grass-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaLodge Grass sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides