Spring Creek Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Creek Colony, 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 Spring Creek Colony 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 Spring Creek Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Creek Colony — the short answer
Spring Creek Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 445 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 445 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 Spring Creek Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Creek Colony's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Creek Colony
Each reading below is measured for Spring Creek Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Creek Colony runs about 155 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
MeasuredSpring Creek Colony 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 Spring Creek Colony is in
Spring Creek Colony sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Spring Creek Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fergus County.
What Grows in Spring Creek Colony
Every plant below cleared Spring Creek Colony's own zone 4b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Creek Colony?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — 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 Spring Creek Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Creek Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16N17E18BAD 01Nitrate · 50 ft
- 16N17E18BDDA01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 16N17E17BCD 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 16N17E21ADD 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 16N17E28ABC 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 16N17E22DCD 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 16N17E27ACBB01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- Republic MineMining · 4.4 mi
- Lead Chief and Lead Chief No. 2Mining · 5.0 mi
- Federal Reserve GroupMining · 5.4 mi
- 17N17E18DADB01Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 16N17E25CDDA01Nitrate · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Creek Colony'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 Spring Creek Colony.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Spring Creek Colony
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 mining sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Creek Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Creek Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Creek Colony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Spring Creek Colony — Nitrate (76 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 Spring Creek Colony
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 Spring Creek Colony average
Your land is one point inside Spring Creek Colony
Everything above resolves to Spring Creek Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 445 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 Spring Creek Colony Average
Spring Creek Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Spring Creek Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Creek Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Creek Colony's scale: May 3 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Creek Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Creek Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Creek Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Creek Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Creek Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Creek Colony average
How we know this about Spring Creek Colony
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 Spring Creek Colony’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 Spring Creek Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Creek Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Creek Colony typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Spring Creek Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Creek Colony typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Creek Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Creek Colony sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 21, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Creek Colony?
The federal record around Spring Creek Colony is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Spring Creek Colony?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Creek Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Creek Colony'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 Spring Creek Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Creek Colony's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 445 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Creek Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Creek Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 5 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Creek Colony, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Creek Colony's boundary and the 445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Creek Colony's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Creek Colony's 445 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fergus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fergus 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 Fergus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Creek Colony's 445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Creek Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 445 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spring Creek Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaSpring Creek Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides