Warm Spring Creek, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Warm Spring Creek, 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 Warm Spring Creek 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 Warm Spring Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Warm Spring Creek — the short answer
Warm Spring Creek, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 271 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~143
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 271 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 Warm Spring Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warm Spring Creek's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warm Spring Creek
Each reading below is measured for Warm Spring Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarm Spring Creek 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
MeasuredWarm Spring Creek 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 Warm Spring Creek is in
Warm Spring Creek sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Warm Spring Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fergus County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Warm Spring Creek
Every plant below cleared Warm Spring Creek'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 Warm Spring Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Warm Spring Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warm Spring Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17N19E34CBAA01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BIG SKY BIBLE COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 16N19E10BCDB01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- Slag DumpMining · 1.8 mi
- 16N19E10CCBB01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 16N20E06ADCC01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- JusticeMining · 2.5 mi
- No. 4 MineMining · 2.6 mi
- S & P MiningMining · 2.7 mi
- GlobeMining · 2.8 mi
- Black Bull MineMining · 2.8 mi
- Montago MineMining · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warm Spring Creek'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 Warm Spring Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warm Spring Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warm Spring Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warm Spring Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Warm Spring Creek — Mining (32 sites) and Nitrate (56 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Warm Spring Creek
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 Warm Spring Creek average
Your land is one point inside Warm Spring Creek
Everything above resolves to Warm Spring Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 271 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 Warm Spring Creek Average
Warm Spring Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Warm Spring Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Warm Spring Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Warm Spring Creek's scale: May 11 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warm Spring Creek's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warm Spring Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warm Spring Creek, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warm Spring Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warm Spring Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warm Spring Creek average
How we know this about Warm Spring Creek
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 Warm Spring Creek’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 Warm Spring Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Warm Spring Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warm Spring Creek typically lands around May 11, 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 Jun 1.
When is the first frost in Warm Spring Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warm Spring Creek typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 143 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warm Spring Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warm Spring Creek sees about 143 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 17, about 108 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warm Spring Creek?
The federal record around Warm Spring Creek runs heavier than most — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Warm Spring Creek?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Warm Spring Creek 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 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Warm Spring Creek's scale — its 4b band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warm Spring Creek'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 Warm Spring Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Warm Spring Creek's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 271 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warm Spring Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warm Spring Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 1 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warm Spring Creek, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warm Spring Creek's boundary and the 271 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Warm Spring Creek sits in the Middle Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Warm Spring Creek's 271 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 Warm Spring Creek's 271 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warm Spring Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 271 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Warm Spring Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWarm Spring Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides