Springwater Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Springwater 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 Springwater 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 Springwater Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Springwater Colony — the short answer
Springwater Colony, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 150 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 150 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 Springwater Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Springwater Colony's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Springwater Colony
Each reading below is measured for Springwater Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpringwater Colony runs about 144 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
MeasuredSpringwater 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 Springwater Colony is in
Springwater Colony sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Springwater Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wheatland County.
What Grows in Springwater Colony
Every plant below cleared Springwater Colony's own zone 4b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Springwater Colony?
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 Sep 29 — 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 Springwater Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Springwater Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPRINGWATER COLONY - FEEDLOTCAFO · 0.6 mi
- HUSKYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- BIGGS BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- DAVES REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB K 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB K 8Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- OLD MILWAUKEE RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB K 3Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB K 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- WOJTOWICK AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- HANKS AUTO & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- HARLOWTON HONEY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Springwater 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 Springwater Colony.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Springwater Colony
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Springwater Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Springwater Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Springwater Colony, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Springwater Colony. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Springwater 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 Springwater Colony average
Your land is one point inside Springwater Colony
Everything above resolves to Springwater Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 150 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 Springwater Colony Average
Springwater Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Springwater Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Springwater Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Springwater Colony's scale: May 8 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Springwater Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Springwater Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Springwater Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Springwater Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Springwater Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Springwater Colony average
How we know this about Springwater 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 Springwater 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 Springwater Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Springwater Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Springwater Colony 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 Springwater Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Springwater Colony typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Springwater Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Springwater Colony sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 15, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Springwater Colony?
The federal record around Springwater Colony is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest CAFO record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Springwater Colony?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Springwater Colony 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 172 to 200 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 Springwater Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Springwater 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 Springwater Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Springwater Colony's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 150 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Springwater Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Springwater Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 29 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Springwater Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Springwater Colony's boundary and the 150 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Springwater 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 Springwater Colony's 150 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wheatland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wheatland 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 Wheatland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Springwater Colony's 150 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Springwater 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 150 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.6 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 Springwater Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaSpringwater Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides