Pondera Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pondera 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 Pondera 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 Pondera Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pondera Colony — the short answer
Pondera Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 150 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 150 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 Pondera Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pondera Colony's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pondera Colony
Each reading below is measured for Pondera Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPondera Colony 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
MeasuredPondera 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 Pondera Colony is in
Pondera Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pondera Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pondera County.
What Grows in Pondera Colony
Every plant below cleared Pondera Colony's own zone 4b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pondera Colony?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Pondera Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pondera Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PONDERA COLONYCAFO · 1200 ft
- BIRCH CREEK COLONY-TREATMENT PLANTCAFO · 2.5 mi
- 28N06W03CBBC01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- MDOT DUPUYER OLD POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- BILLS RANCH COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB T 48Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB T 49Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB T 50Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MERCURY EXPLORATION CO MONTANAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MDOT DUPUYER SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- JOHN WHETHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN MOTOR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pondera 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 Pondera Colony.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Pondera Colony
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pondera Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pondera Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pondera Colony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pondera Colony — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (25 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pondera 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 Pondera Colony average
Your land is one point inside Pondera Colony
Everything above resolves to Pondera Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 150 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 Pondera Colony Average
Pondera Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pondera Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Pondera Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Pondera Colony's scale: May 5 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pondera Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pondera Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pondera Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pondera Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pondera Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pondera Colony average
How we know this about Pondera 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 Pondera 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 Pondera Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Pondera Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pondera Colony typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Pondera Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pondera Colony typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pondera Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pondera Colony sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 17, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pondera Colony?
The federal record around Pondera Colony is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Pondera Colony?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pondera Colony 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 5 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pondera Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pondera 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 Pondera Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pondera Colony's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 150 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pondera Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pondera Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 1 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pondera Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pondera Colony's boundary and the 150 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pondera 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 Pondera Colony's 150 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 Pondera Colony's 150 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pondera 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 150 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 Pondera Colony-wide figureread your own land →