Winnett, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Winnett, 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 Winnett 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 Winnett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winnett — the short answer
Winnett, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 652 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 652 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 Winnett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winnett's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winnett
Each reading below is measured for Winnett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinnett runs about 164 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
MeasuredWinnett 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 Winnett is in
Winnett sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Winnett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Petroleum County.
What Grows in Winnett
Every plant below cleared Winnett's own zone 4b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winnett?
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 Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Winnett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winnett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B & D SERVICE MAIN STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PETROLEUM COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WINNETT TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MDOT 53 3501 WINNETT SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HILLTOP SERVICE ARAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 14N27E05DBB 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 14N26E02CAD 01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 15N26E13DD 01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 14N26E35AD 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 13N26E01DA 01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 15N25E24DBD 01Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 14N25E23DD 01Nitrate · 9.7 mi
Measured from Winnett'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 Winnett.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winnett
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Winnett
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 Winnett average
Your land is one point inside Winnett
Everything above resolves to Winnett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 652 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 Winnett Average
Winnett Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Winnett
- ●One soil character for all of Winnett
- ●Frost dates read at Winnett's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winnett's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winnett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winnett, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winnett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winnett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winnett average
How we know this about Winnett
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 Winnett’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 Winnett
When does frost risk typically end in Winnett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winnett typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Winnett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winnett typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winnett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winnett sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 24, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winnett?
The federal record around Winnett is light — 19 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Winnett?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winnett's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winnett'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 Winnett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Winnett's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 652 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winnett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winnett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 8 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winnett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winnett's boundary and the 652 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winnett's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winnett's 652 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Petroleum County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Petroleum 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 Petroleum County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winnett's 652 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winnett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 652 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Winnett-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWinnett sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides