Nye, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nye, 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 Nye 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 Nye — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nye — the short answer
Nye, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 226 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 226 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 5a is Nye's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nye's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nye
Each reading below is measured for Nye itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNye runs about 149 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
MeasuredNye sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Nye is in
Nye sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nye's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stillwater County.
What Grows in Nye
Every plant below cleared Nye's own zone 5a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nye?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — 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 Nye
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nye. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05S15E01AAAA01Nitrate · 750 ft
- NYE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 05S15E02DCCB01 KEOGH HOUSE WELLNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 04S16E28BADB01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- CARTERS CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SMC NYE MINE SITEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- SMC NYE MINE SITEToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- Nye Basin, AliceMining · 4.0 mi
- Nye Basin Alice Cr-PtMining · 4.1 mi
- Nye Basin, Big Seven FaultMining · 4.2 mi
- Nye Basin Big SevenMining · 4.3 mi
- Nye Basin Ni-Cu EastMining · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nye'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 Nye.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Nye
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nye
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nye
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nye, Mining runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Nye. 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 Nye
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 Nye average
Your land is one point inside Nye
Everything above resolves to Nye as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 226 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 Nye Average
Nye Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Nye
- ●One soil character for all of Nye
- ●Frost dates read at Nye's scale: May 7 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nye's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nye
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nye, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nye averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nye — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nye average
How we know this about Nye
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 Nye’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 Nye
When does frost risk typically end in Nye?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nye typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Nye?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nye typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nye?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nye sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 19, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nye?
The federal record around Nye shows 60 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (41), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Nye?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Nye 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Nye's scale — its 5a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nye'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 Nye’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nye's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 226 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nye's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nye's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 3 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nye, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nye's boundary and the 226 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nye's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nye's 226 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stillwater County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stillwater 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 Stillwater County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nye's 226 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nye you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 226 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Nye-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaNye sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.