Red Lodge, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Red Lodge, 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 Red Lodge 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 Red Lodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Lodge — the short answer
Red Lodge, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- 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
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Red Lodge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Lodge's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Lodge
Each reading below is measured for Red Lodge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Lodge runs about 148 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
MeasuredRed Lodge 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 Red Lodge is in
Red Lodge sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Red Lodge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Red Lodge
Every plant below cleared Red Lodge's own zone 5a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Lodge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (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 Red Lodge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Lodge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RED LODGE FOUND TANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ANDERSON CONOCO RED LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CARTER OIL / CITY OF RED LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- THE SKI STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TOWN PUMP OF RED LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- OLD TOWN SQUAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PONY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CENEX ZIP TRIP 74Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BEARTOOTH FORD LLC RED LODGEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BOYDS QUALITY COLLISION REPAIRBrownfields · 1900 ft
- RED LODGE COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CARBON COUNTY ABSTRACT TITLE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Lodge'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 Red Lodge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Lodge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Lodge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Lodge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Red Lodge — Nitrate (30 sites) and Mining (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Red Lodge
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 Red Lodge average
Your land is one point inside Red Lodge
Everything above resolves to Red Lodge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Red Lodge Average
Red Lodge Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Red Lodge
- ●One soil character for all of Red Lodge
- ●Frost dates read at Red Lodge's scale: May 8 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Lodge's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Lodge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Lodge, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Lodge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Lodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Lodge average
How we know this about Red Lodge
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Red Lodge’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Red Lodge
When does frost risk typically end in Red Lodge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lodge typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Red Lodge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lodge 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 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Lodge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Lodge sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 19, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Lodge?
The federal record around Red Lodge shows 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Red Lodge?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Red Lodge 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Red Lodge's scale — its 5a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Lodge'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 Red Lodge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red Lodge's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,736 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Lodge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Lodge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 3 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Lodge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Lodge's boundary and the 1,736 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Red Lodge's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red Lodge's 1,736 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon 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 Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Lodge's 1,736 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Lodge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,736 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Red Lodge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaRed Lodge sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.