Ponderosa Pines, 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 Ponderosa Pines, 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 Ponderosa Pines 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 Ponderosa Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ponderosa Pines — the short answer
Ponderosa Pines, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 25K 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 Ponderosa Pines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ponderosa Pines's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Ponderosa Pines's own 30-year record measures about 150 days between 28°F killing freezes — 36 days longer than Gallatin County's ~114. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Ponderosa Pines's ~150-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ponderosa Pines
Each reading below is measured for Ponderosa Pines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPonderosa Pines runs about 150 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
MeasuredPonderosa Pines 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 Ponderosa Pines is in
Ponderosa Pines sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Ponderosa Pines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gallatin County.
What Grows in Ponderosa Pines
Every plant below cleared Ponderosa Pines's own zone 5a and its 150-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ponderosa Pines?
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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Ponderosa Pines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 04N02E16AAA 01Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- TRIDENTBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- TRIDENTToxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
- HOLCIM USA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- 04N02E10BB 01Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- Nellie H. MineMining · 8.0 mi
- 05N02E35DAB 01Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- SAMUEL F KIRKSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- 02N02E09CBDA01Nitrate · 8.7 mi
- Copper City MineMining · 8.7 mi
- 04N02E18ACAC01Nitrate · 8.9 mi
- Pennsylvania MineMining · 9.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ponderosa Pines'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 Ponderosa Pines.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pines
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ponderosa Pines, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pines — Mining (15 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ponderosa Pines
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 Ponderosa Pines average
Your land is one point inside Ponderosa Pines
Everything above resolves to Ponderosa Pines as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Ponderosa Pines Average
Ponderosa Pines Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Ponderosa Pines
- ●One soil character for all of Ponderosa Pines
- ●Frost dates read at Ponderosa Pines's scale: May 5 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ponderosa Pines's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ponderosa Pines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ponderosa Pines, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ponderosa Pines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ponderosa Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ponderosa Pines average
How we know this about Ponderosa Pines
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 Ponderosa Pines’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 Ponderosa Pines
When does frost risk typically end in Ponderosa Pines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ponderosa Pines 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 Ponderosa Pines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ponderosa Pines typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 150 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ponderosa Pines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ponderosa Pines sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 18, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ponderosa Pines?
The federal record around Ponderosa Pines is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 7.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Ponderosa Pines?
From about Sep 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ponderosa Pines's scale — its 5a band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ponderosa Pines'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 Ponderosa Pines’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ponderosa Pines's own scale — its own ~150-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,373 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ponderosa Pines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ponderosa Pines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 2 and the ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ponderosa Pines, the closest Nitrate record about 7.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ponderosa Pines's boundary and the 25,373 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ponderosa Pines's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ponderosa Pines's 25,373 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gallatin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gallatin 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 Gallatin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ponderosa Pines's 25,373 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ponderosa Pines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,373 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 7.3 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 Ponderosa Pines-wide figureread your own land →
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