Utica, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Utica, 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 Utica 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 Utica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Utica — the short answer
Utica, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 160 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~143
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 160 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 Utica's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Utica's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Utica
Each reading below is measured for Utica itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUtica runs about 143 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
MeasuredUtica 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 Utica is in
Utica sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Utica's own centroid rather than borrowed from Judith Basin County.
What Grows in Utica
Every plant below cleared Utica's own zone 4b and its 143-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Utica?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — 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 Utica
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Utica. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14N13E16CCCD01Nitrate · 450 ft
- CAMPBELL RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 14N13E33ABAD01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 14N13E30BCD 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 14N13E30BC 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 14N13E11CCD 01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 14N13E24BCBA01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 14N13E26DCBB01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 13N13E04AADD01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 14N13E35CACC01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 15N13E16BDBD01Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 15N12E13CADD01Nitrate · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Utica'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 Utica.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Utica
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Utica
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Utica
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Utica, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Utica. 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 Utica
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 Utica average
Your land is one point inside Utica
Everything above resolves to Utica as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 160 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 Utica Average
Utica Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Utica
- ●One soil character for all of Utica
- ●Frost dates read at Utica's scale: May 10 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Utica's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Utica
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Utica, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Utica averages can't show:
We read public map data around Utica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Utica average
How we know this about Utica
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 Utica’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 Utica
When does frost risk typically end in Utica?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Utica typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Utica?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Utica typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 143 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Utica?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Utica sees about 143 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 16, about 108 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Utica?
The federal record around Utica shows 79 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Utica?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Utica 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 171 to 199 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Utica's scale — its 4b band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Utica'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 Utica’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Utica's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 160 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Utica's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Utica's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 30 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Utica, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Utica's boundary and the 160 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Utica's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Utica's 160 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Judith Basin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Judith Basin 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 Judith Basin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Utica's 160 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Utica you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 160 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 Utica-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaUtica sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides