Wolf Creek, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, 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 Wolf 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 Wolf 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 Wolf Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wolf Creek — the short answer
Wolf Creek, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 137 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 137 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 Wolf Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wolf Creek's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wolf Creek
Each reading below is measured for Wolf Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWolf Creek 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
MeasuredWolf 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 Wolf Creek is in
Wolf Creek sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Wolf Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lewis and Clark County.
What Grows in Wolf Creek
Every plant below cleared Wolf Creek'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 Wolf Creek?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Wolf Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wolf Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MDOT WOLF CREEK SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- LAYTON RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CRAIG BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- OASIS BAR & CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CANYON STORE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SINCLAIR WOLF CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Bissonette MineMining · 1.2 mi
- Wolf Creek DistrictMining · 1.6 mi
- Montreal ClaimMining · 1.8 mi
- Hudson MineMining · 1.8 mi
- HoneycombMining · 2.0 mi
- Sheep Creek GroupMining · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wolf 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 Wolf Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wolf Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wolf Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wolf Creek, Mining runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Wolf Creek. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Wolf 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 Wolf Creek average
Your land is one point inside Wolf Creek
Everything above resolves to Wolf Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 137 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 Wolf Creek Average
Wolf Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Wolf Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Wolf Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Wolf Creek's scale: May 1 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wolf Creek's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wolf Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wolf Creek, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wolf Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wolf Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wolf Creek average
How we know this about Wolf 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 Wolf 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 Wolf Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Wolf Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wolf Creek typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Wolf Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wolf Creek typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wolf Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wolf Creek sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 28, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wolf Creek?
The federal record around Wolf Creek is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wolf Creek?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wolf Creek's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wolf 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 Wolf Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wolf Creek's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 137 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wolf Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wolf Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 12 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wolf Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wolf Creek's boundary and the 137 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 Wolf Creek's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wolf Creek's 137 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis and Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis and Clark 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 Lewis and Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wolf Creek's 137 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wolf 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 137 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 Wolf Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWolf Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides