Riverbend, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Riverbend, 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 Riverbend 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 Riverbend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Riverbend — the short answer
Riverbend, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6a is Riverbend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riverbend's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riverbend
Each reading below is measured for Riverbend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiverbend runs about 161 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
MeasuredRiverbend sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Riverbend is in
Riverbend sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Riverbend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mineral County.
What Grows in Riverbend
Every plant below cleared Riverbend's own zone 6a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Riverbend?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Riverbend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riverbend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN PUMP INC SUPERIORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SUPERIOR ENTERPRISES LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FORMER MWRR SUPERIORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FOLD OF THE MESSIAHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LAVISTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DAW FOREST PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DAW FOREST PRODUCTS CO PLANT DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PLANT DEPT WATER PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AT & T COMMUNICATIONS SUPERIOR RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CLIFFORD R WARNKENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LOZEAU STAGECOACH INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riverbend'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 Riverbend.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riverbend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riverbend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Riverbend, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Riverbend. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Riverbend
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 Riverbend average
Your land is one point inside Riverbend
Everything above resolves to Riverbend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Riverbend Average
Riverbend Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Riverbend
- ●One soil character for all of Riverbend
- ●Frost dates read at Riverbend's scale: May 2 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riverbend's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riverbend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riverbend, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riverbend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riverbend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riverbend average
How we know this about Riverbend
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 Riverbend’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 Riverbend
When does frost risk typically end in Riverbend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riverbend typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Riverbend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riverbend typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Riverbend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riverbend sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 26, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Riverbend?
The federal record around Riverbend runs heavier than most — 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 I protect my plants from frost in Riverbend?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Riverbend's scale — its 6a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riverbend'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 Riverbend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Riverbend's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,523 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riverbend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riverbend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 10 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riverbend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riverbend's boundary and the 2,523 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Riverbend's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Riverbend's 2,523 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mineral County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mineral 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 Mineral County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Riverbend's 2,523 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riverbend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,523 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Riverbend-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaRiverbend sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.