Rader Creek, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rader Creek, 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 Rader Creek 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 Rader Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rader Creek — the short answer
Rader Creek, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- 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
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 13K 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 Rader Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rader Creek's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rader Creek
Each reading below is measured for Rader Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRader Creek runs about 144 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
MeasuredRader Creek 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 Rader Creek is in
Rader Creek sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rader Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Rader Creek
Every plant below cleared Rader Creek's own zone 4b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rader Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (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. 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 Rader Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rader Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01N06W13BADC01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 01N06W22ACDA01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 01N06W16ADCA01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- Moscow ProspectMining · 2.0 mi
- Moscow MineMining · 2.0 mi
- 01N05W18BDAD01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 01N06W04CDCC01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- JupiterMining · 2.6 mi
- LEWIS & CLARK CAVERNS STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- War Eagle & Leroy MinesMining · 3.6 mi
- 02N05W29CABA01Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- Stratton MineMining · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rader Creek'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 Rader Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rader Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rader Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rader Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rader Creek — Mining (41 sites) and Nitrate (30 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 Rader Creek
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 Rader Creek average
Your land is one point inside Rader Creek
Everything above resolves to Rader Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 Rader Creek Average
Rader Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Rader Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Rader Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Rader Creek's scale: May 10 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rader Creek's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rader Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rader Creek, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rader Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rader Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rader Creek average
How we know this about Rader Creek
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 Rader Creek’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 Rader Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Rader Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rader Creek typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Rader Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rader Creek 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 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rader Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rader Creek sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 17, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rader Creek?
The federal record around Rader Creek runs heavier than most — 74 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (41), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Rader Creek?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rader Creek 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rader Creek's scale — its 4b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rader Creek'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 Rader Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rader Creek's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,961 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rader Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rader Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 1 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rader Creek, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rader Creek's boundary and the 12,961 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rader Creek's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rader Creek's 12,961 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rader Creek's 12,961 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rader Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,961 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Rader Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaRader Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides