Lodge Pole, 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: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lodge Pole, 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 Pole 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 Pole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lodge Pole — the short answer
Lodge Pole, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Pole's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lodge Pole's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lodge Pole
Each reading below is measured for Lodge Pole itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLodge Pole runs about 159 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
MeasuredLodge Pole 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 Pole is in
Lodge Pole sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lodge Pole's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Blaine County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lodge Pole
Every plant below cleared Lodge Pole's own zone 4b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lodge Pole?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Lodge Pole
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lodge Pole. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 26N25E08BDAC01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 26N25E05CDBD01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 26N25E06ACB 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- FORT BELKNAP ASBESTOS PROPERTIESSuperfund · 1.0 mi
- 26N25E05CACA01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 26N25E05CABD01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 26N25E05CAAA04Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 26N25E05CAAA01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 26N25E05CAAA02Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 26N25E05BDDD01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 26N25E05BDDA01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 26N25E17BAAA01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lodge Pole'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 Pole.
Total Sites
202
within ~10 miles of Lodge Pole
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lodge Pole
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lodge Pole
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lodge Pole, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 180 sites within ~10 miles of Lodge Pole. 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 Pole
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 Pole average
Your land is one point inside Lodge Pole
Everything above resolves to Lodge Pole as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Pole Average
Lodge Pole Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lodge Pole
- ●One soil character for all of Lodge Pole
- ●Frost dates read at Lodge Pole's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lodge Pole's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lodge Pole
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lodge Pole, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lodge Pole averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lodge Pole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lodge Pole average
How we know this about Lodge Pole
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 Pole’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 Pole
When does frost risk typically end in Lodge Pole?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lodge Pole typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Lodge Pole?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lodge Pole typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lodge Pole?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lodge Pole sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 22, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lodge Pole?
The federal record around Lodge Pole is a meaningful one — 202 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (180), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lodge Pole?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lodge Pole's scale — its 4b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lodge Pole'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 Pole’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lodge Pole's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,568 acres it covers and 202 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lodge Pole's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lodge Pole's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 6 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 202 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lodge Pole, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lodge Pole's boundary and the 8,568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lodge Pole sits in the Middle 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 Lodge Pole's 8,568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blaine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blaine 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 Blaine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lodge Pole's 8,568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lodge Pole you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,568 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lodge Pole-wide figureread your own land →
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