Martinsdale Colony, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Martinsdale Colony, 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 Martinsdale Colony 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 Martinsdale Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Martinsdale Colony — the short answer
Martinsdale Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Martinsdale Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Martinsdale Colony's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Martinsdale Colony
Each reading below is measured for Martinsdale Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMartinsdale Colony runs about 136 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
MeasuredMartinsdale Colony 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 Martinsdale Colony is in
Martinsdale Colony sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Martinsdale Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wheatland County.
What Grows in Martinsdale Colony
Every plant below cleared Martinsdale Colony's own zone 4b and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Martinsdale Colony?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Martinsdale Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Martinsdale Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARTINSDALE REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CHECKERBOARD INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SWALLOWS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- MILWAUKEE RAILROAD MONTANA SUBSTATIONSSuperfund · 9.3 mi
Measured from Martinsdale Colony'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 Martinsdale Colony.
Total Sites
4
within ~10 miles of Martinsdale Colony
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Martinsdale Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Martinsdale Colony
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 Martinsdale Colony average
Your land is one point inside Martinsdale Colony
Everything above resolves to Martinsdale Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Martinsdale Colony Average
Martinsdale Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Martinsdale Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Martinsdale Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Martinsdale Colony's scale: May 13 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Martinsdale Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Martinsdale Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Martinsdale Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Martinsdale Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Martinsdale Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Martinsdale Colony average
How we know this about Martinsdale Colony
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 Martinsdale Colony’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 Martinsdale Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Martinsdale Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsdale Colony typically lands around May 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Martinsdale Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsdale Colony typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Martinsdale Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Martinsdale Colony sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 12, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Martinsdale Colony?
The federal record around Martinsdale Colony is a meaningful one — 4 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Martinsdale Colony?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Martinsdale Colony 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 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Martinsdale Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Martinsdale Colony'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 Martinsdale Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Martinsdale Colony's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,423 acres it covers and 4 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Martinsdale Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Martinsdale Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Sep 26 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Martinsdale Colony, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Martinsdale Colony's boundary and the 1,423 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Martinsdale Colony's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Martinsdale Colony's 1,423 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wheatland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wheatland 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 Wheatland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Martinsdale Colony's 1,423 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Martinsdale Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,423 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 Martinsdale Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaMartinsdale Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides