Maverick Mountain, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: pumpkin, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Maverick Mountain, 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 Maverick Mountain 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 Maverick Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Maverick Mountain — the short answer
Maverick Mountain, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 70 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Aug 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~70
- 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 4a is Maverick Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maverick Mountain's 70-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maverick Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Maverick Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaverick Mountain runs about 70 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
MeasuredMaverick Mountain sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Maverick Mountain is in
Maverick Mountain sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Maverick Mountain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaverhead County.
What Grows in Maverick Mountain
Every plant below cleared Maverick Mountain's own zone 4a and its 70-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maverick Mountain?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Aug 23 — 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 Maverick Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maverick Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05S12W08AADC01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- MAVERICK SKI COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mcconnell Wellman GroupMining · 2.5 mi
- Red Rock MineMining · 3.1 mi
- GRASSHOPPER INN USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ELKHORN HOT SPRINGS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Guy MineMining · 3.4 mi
- YellowstoneMining · 3.6 mi
- EclipseMining · 3.6 mi
- Polaris MineMining · 3.7 mi
- Oro GrandeMining · 3.9 mi
- Wellman MineMining · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maverick Mountain'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 Maverick Mountain.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maverick Mountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maverick Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maverick Mountain, Mining runs higher than the national average — 59 sites within ~10 miles of Maverick Mountain. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Maverick Mountain
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 Maverick Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Maverick Mountain
Everything above resolves to Maverick Mountain 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 Maverick Mountain Average
Maverick Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Maverick Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Maverick Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Maverick Mountain's scale: Jun 14 to Aug 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maverick Mountain's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maverick Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maverick Mountain, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maverick Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maverick Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maverick Mountain average
How we know this about Maverick Mountain
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 Maverick Mountain’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 Maverick Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Maverick Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maverick Mountain typically lands around Jun 14, 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 Jul 5.
When is the first frost in Maverick Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maverick Mountain typically arrives around Aug 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 9, so the watching starts about Jul 24 — about 70 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maverick Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maverick Mountain sees about 70 frost-free days — roughly Jun 14 through Aug 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 5 to Aug 9, about 35 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maverick Mountain?
The federal record around Maverick Mountain runs heavier than most — 68 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (59), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Maverick Mountain?
With about 70 frost-free days between hard freezes, Maverick Mountain 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 98 to 126 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Maverick Mountain's scale — its 4a band and its 70-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maverick Mountain'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 Maverick Mountain’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maverick Mountain's own scale — its own ~70-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,184 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maverick Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maverick Mountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 14 and Aug 23 and the ~70-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maverick Mountain, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maverick Mountain's boundary and the 1,184 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~70-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maverick Mountain's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Maverick Mountain's 1,184 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaverhead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaverhead 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 Beaverhead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maverick Mountain's 1,184 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maverick Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,184 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Maverick Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaMaverick Mountain sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.