Midway Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Midway 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 Midway 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 Midway Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midway Colony — the short answer
Midway Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 337 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 337 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 Midway Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midway Colony's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midway Colony
Each reading below is measured for Midway Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMidway Colony runs about 155 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
MeasuredMidway 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 Midway Colony is in
Midway Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Midway Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pondera County.
What Grows in Midway Colony
Every plant below cleared Midway Colony's own zone 4b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Midway 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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — 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 Midway Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midway Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWAY COLONYCAFO · 0.6 mi
- MAIN LINE COMPRESSOR 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- H W DISTRIBUTORS INC CONRADUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB S 37Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- DANS TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- COURTESY FORD SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- COURTESY FORDBrownfields · 7.2 mi
- TRIANGLE DISTRIBUTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- MOUNTAIN VIEW COOP BRADYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- TRIANGLE ENGINEERING OF CONRADUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- PONDERA COUNTY USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- TOMS SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midway 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 Midway Colony.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Midway Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midway Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midway Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Midway Colony, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Midway Colony. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Midway 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 Midway Colony average
Your land is one point inside Midway Colony
Everything above resolves to Midway Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 337 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 Midway Colony Average
Midway Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Midway Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Midway Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Midway Colony's scale: May 3 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midway Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midway Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midway Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midway Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midway Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midway Colony average
How we know this about Midway 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 Midway 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 Midway Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Midway Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midway Colony typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Midway Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midway Colony typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midway Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midway Colony sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 21, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midway Colony?
The federal record around Midway Colony shows 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest CAFO record about 0.6 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Midway Colony?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Midway Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midway 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 Midway Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Midway Colony's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 337 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midway Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Midway Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 5 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midway Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midway Colony's boundary and the 337 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Midway Colony's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Midway Colony's 337 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pondera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pondera 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 Pondera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Midway Colony's 337 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midway 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 337 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.6 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 Midway Colony-wide figureread your own land →