Miller Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Miller 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 Miller 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 Miller Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Miller Colony — the short answer
Miller Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 234 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 234 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 Miller Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Miller Colony's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Miller Colony
Each reading below is measured for Miller Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiller Colony runs about 156 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
MeasuredMiller Colony 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 Miller Colony is in
Miller Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Miller Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Teton County.
What Grows in Miller Colony
Every plant below cleared Miller Colony's own zone 4a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Miller 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 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 Miller Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Miller Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MILLER COLONY - FEEDLOTCAFO · 900 ft
- Choteau Iron DepositMining · 1.5 mi
- NORTH MONTANA FEEDERS INCCAFO · 2.8 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB F 11Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB F 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB F 9Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB H 10Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB F 10Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PUCKETTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- 25N05W24CDDD01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB S 34Underground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- BOUMA TRUCK SALESBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Miller 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 Miller Colony.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Miller Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Miller Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Miller Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Miller Colony, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Miller Colony. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Miller 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 Miller Colony average
Your land is one point inside Miller Colony
Everything above resolves to Miller Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 234 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 Miller Colony Average
Miller Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Miller Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Miller Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Miller Colony's scale: May 3 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Miller Colony's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Miller Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Miller Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Miller Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Miller Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Miller Colony average
How we know this about Miller 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 Miller 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 Miller Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Miller Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Miller 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 Miller Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Miller Colony 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 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Miller Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Miller Colony sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 22, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Miller Colony?
The federal record around Miller Colony shows 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest CAFO record about 0.2 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 Miller Colony?
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 Miller Colony's scale — its 4a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Miller 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 Miller Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Miller Colony's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 234 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Miller Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Miller Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 6 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Miller Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Miller Colony's boundary and the 234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Miller 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 Miller Colony's 234 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Teton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Teton 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 Teton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Miller Colony's 234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Miller 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 234 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.2 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 Miller Colony-wide figureread your own land →