Prairie Elk Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prairie Elk Colony — the short answer
Prairie Elk Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 222 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 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 222 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 Prairie Elk Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prairie Elk Colony's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prairie Elk Colony
Each reading below is measured for Prairie Elk Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrairie Elk Colony runs about 153 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
MeasuredPrairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony is in
Prairie Elk Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Prairie Elk Colony's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: McCone County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Prairie Elk Colony
Every plant below cleared Prairie Elk Colony's own zone 4a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prairie Elk Colony?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 3 — 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 Prairie Elk Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prairie Elk Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRAIRIE ELK SWINECAFO · 1100 ft
- 26N45E11DCCD01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 26N45E10DDAC01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- JOHN SORLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 26N47E30ACCD01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 27N45E33CD 01Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 25N45E13ADAB01Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 25N46E21AD 01Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- 25N46E29CBAA01Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 27N47E22BB 01Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- FARMEX GRAIN COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- MECHANICAL SYSTEMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Prairie Elk Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prairie Elk Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prairie Elk Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prairie Elk Colony, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Prairie Elk Colony. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony average
Your land is one point inside Prairie Elk Colony
Everything above resolves to Prairie Elk Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 222 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 Prairie Elk Colony Average
Prairie Elk Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Prairie Elk Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Prairie Elk Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Prairie Elk Colony's scale: May 3 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prairie Elk Colony's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prairie Elk Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prairie Elk Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prairie Elk Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prairie Elk Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prairie Elk Colony average
How we know this about Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Prairie Elk Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prairie Elk Colony 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 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prairie Elk Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prairie Elk Colony sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 19, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prairie Elk Colony?
The federal record around Prairie Elk Colony shows 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), 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 Prairie Elk Colony?
From about Sep 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prairie Elk Colony's scale — its 4a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prairie Elk 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 Prairie Elk Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prairie Elk Colony's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 222 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prairie Elk Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prairie Elk Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 3 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prairie Elk Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prairie Elk Colony's boundary and the 222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Prairie Elk Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prairie Elk Colony's 222 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCone 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 McCone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prairie Elk Colony's 222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prairie Elk 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 222 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 Prairie Elk Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaPrairie Elk Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides