Medicine Lake, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Medicine 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 Medicine 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 Medicine Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Medicine Lake — the short answer
Medicine Lake, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 253 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 253 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 3b is Medicine Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Medicine Lake's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Medicine Lake
Each reading below is measured for Medicine Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMedicine Lake runs about 148 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
MeasuredMedicine Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Medicine Lake is in
Medicine Lake sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Medicine Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sheridan County.
What Grows in Medicine Lake
Every plant below cleared Medicine Lake's own zone 3b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Medicine Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — 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 Medicine Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Medicine Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DONS SERVICE & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MEDICINE LAKE SCHOOL DIST 7Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LAKE PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SHERIDAN ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JACKS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BN RESERVE DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 32N55E25ABCB01Nitrate · 1400 ft
- ANTELOPE DEPOT 4609621Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BN REDSTONE DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BN MEDICINE LAKE DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BN HOMESTEAD DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ANTELOPE DEPOT 4603029Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Medicine 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 Medicine Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Medicine Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Medicine Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Medicine Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Medicine Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Medicine 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 Medicine Lake average
Your land is one point inside Medicine Lake
Everything above resolves to Medicine Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 253 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 Medicine Lake Average
Medicine Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Medicine Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Medicine Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Medicine Lake's scale: May 4 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Medicine Lake's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Medicine Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Medicine Lake, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Medicine Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Medicine Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Medicine Lake average
How we know this about Medicine 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 Medicine 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 Medicine Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Medicine Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Medicine Lake typically lands around May 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 May 25.
When is the first frost in Medicine Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Medicine Lake typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Medicine Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Medicine Lake sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 15, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Medicine Lake?
The federal record around Medicine Lake shows 57 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Medicine Lake?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Medicine 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Medicine Lake's scale — its 3b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Medicine 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 Medicine Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Medicine Lake's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 253 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Medicine Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Medicine Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Sep 29 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Medicine Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Medicine Lake's boundary and the 253 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Medicine Lake's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Medicine Lake's 253 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sheridan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sheridan 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 Sheridan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Medicine Lake's 253 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Medicine 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 253 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 Medicine Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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