Saddle Butte, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Saddle Butte, 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 Saddle Butte 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 Saddle Butte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saddle Butte — the short answer
Saddle Butte, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- 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
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 4a is Saddle Butte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saddle Butte's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saddle Butte
Each reading below is measured for Saddle Butte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaddle Butte runs about 154 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
MeasuredSaddle Butte 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 Saddle Butte is in
Saddle Butte sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Saddle Butte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hill County.
What Grows in Saddle Butte
Every plant below cleared Saddle Butte's own zone 4a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saddle Butte?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (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. 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 Saddle Butte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saddle Butte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JS LIVESTOCKCAFO · 0.9 mi
- DOW BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 32N16E17ADDB01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- JACOBSON DRILLING SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NAULT P & H INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ALFRED BRADBURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- UPS - HAVRE CENTERBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- J & P REAL ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- US CBP HAVRE SECTOR HQ #MT0040Toxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- SOUTH GATE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SHORT STOP HAVREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KENNETH R JONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saddle Butte'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 Saddle Butte.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Saddle Butte
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saddle Butte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saddle Butte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saddle Butte, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 103 sites within ~10 miles of Saddle Butte. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Saddle Butte
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 Saddle Butte average
Your land is one point inside Saddle Butte
Everything above resolves to Saddle Butte 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 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 Saddle Butte Average
Saddle Butte Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Saddle Butte
- ●One soil character for all of Saddle Butte
- ●Frost dates read at Saddle Butte's scale: May 1 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saddle Butte's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saddle Butte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saddle Butte, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saddle Butte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saddle Butte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saddle Butte average
How we know this about Saddle Butte
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 Saddle Butte’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 Saddle Butte
When does frost risk typically end in Saddle Butte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saddle Butte typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Saddle Butte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saddle Butte 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 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saddle Butte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saddle Butte sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 18, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saddle Butte?
The federal record around Saddle Butte shows 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest CAFO record about 0.9 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 Saddle Butte?
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 Saddle Butte's scale — its 4a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saddle Butte'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 Saddle Butte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Saddle Butte's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,606 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saddle Butte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saddle Butte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 2 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saddle Butte, the closest CAFO record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saddle Butte's boundary and the 1,606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saddle Butte's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saddle Butte's 1,606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hill 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 Hill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saddle Butte's 1,606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saddle Butte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.9 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 Saddle Butte-wide figureread your own land →
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