White Haven, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in White Haven, 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 White Haven 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 White Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Haven — the short answer
White Haven, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 634 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 634 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 6a is White Haven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Haven's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Haven
Each reading below is measured for White Haven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Haven runs about 157 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
MeasuredWhite Haven sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 White Haven is in
White Haven sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at White Haven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in White Haven
Every plant below cleared White Haven's own zone 6a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Haven?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 White Haven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Haven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEARS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 30N31W24 CBB2Nitrate · 450 ft
- 30N31W23ADDNitrate · 650 ft
- 30N31W24 CBCNitrate · 950 ft
- 30N31W23DABNitrate · 1000 ft
- 30N31W23DAB02Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 30N31W23ADA01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 30N31W23DDANitrate · 1300 ft
- 30N31W24CACNitrate · 1800 ft
- 30N31W24 CDBNitrate · 2000 ft
- MDOT LIBBY 2708751Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 30N31W23DDDNitrate · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Haven'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 White Haven.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Haven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Haven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Haven, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Haven — Nitrate (150 sites) and Mining (25 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 White Haven
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 White Haven average
Your land is one point inside White Haven
Everything above resolves to White Haven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 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 White Haven Average
White Haven Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across White Haven
- ●One soil character for all of White Haven
- ●Frost dates read at White Haven's scale: May 2 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Haven's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Haven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Haven, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Haven averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Haven average
How we know this about White Haven
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 White Haven’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 White Haven
When does frost risk typically end in White Haven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Haven typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in White Haven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Haven typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Haven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Haven sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 22, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Haven?
The federal record around White Haven runs heavier than most — 257 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in White Haven?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Haven's scale — its 6a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Haven'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 White Haven’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Haven's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Haven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Haven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 6 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Haven, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Haven's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Haven's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Haven's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Haven's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Haven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 White Haven-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWhite Haven sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides