Santa Rita, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Santa Rita, 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 Santa Rita 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 Santa Rita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Santa Rita — the short answer
Santa Rita, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- 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 Santa Rita's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Santa Rita's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Santa Rita
Each reading below is measured for Santa Rita itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSanta Rita runs about 145 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
MeasuredSanta Rita 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 Santa Rita is in
Santa Rita sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Santa Rita's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Santa Rita
Every plant below cleared Santa Rita's own zone 4a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Santa Rita?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Santa Rita
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Santa Rita. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 34N05W20BB 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- RUMNEY RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 34N06W14DD 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 34N06W12CC 01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 34N06W14BC 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 34N05W29DA 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- H ARTHUR TOMSHECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 34N05W31CD 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- BUS BARN CUT BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- ALMA CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- ALBERTSONS 0033Brownfields · 4.1 mi
- TOWN PUMP INC CUT BANK 2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Santa Rita'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 Santa Rita.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Santa Rita
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Santa Rita
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Santa Rita
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Santa Rita, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Santa Rita. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Santa Rita
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 Santa Rita average
Your land is one point inside Santa Rita
Everything above resolves to Santa Rita 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 Santa Rita Average
Santa Rita Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Santa Rita
- ●One soil character for all of Santa Rita
- ●Frost dates read at Santa Rita's scale: May 6 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Santa Rita's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Santa Rita
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Santa Rita, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Santa Rita averages can't show:
We read public map data around Santa Rita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Santa Rita average
How we know this about Santa Rita
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 Santa Rita’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 Santa Rita
When does frost risk typically end in Santa Rita?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Santa Rita typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Santa Rita?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Santa Rita typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Santa Rita?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Santa Rita sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 14, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Santa Rita?
The federal record around Santa Rita is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Santa Rita?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Santa Rita 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Santa Rita's scale — its 4a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Santa Rita'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 Santa Rita’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Santa Rita's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,216 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Santa Rita's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Santa Rita's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Sep 28 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Santa Rita, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Santa Rita's boundary and the 2,216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Santa Rita's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Santa Rita's 2,216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glacier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glacier 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 Glacier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Santa Rita's 2,216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Santa Rita you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Santa Rita-wide figureread your own land →