Woods Bay, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woods Bay, 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 Woods Bay 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 Woods Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woods Bay — the short answer
Woods Bay, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 870 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 870 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 Woods Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woods Bay's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woods Bay
Each reading below is measured for Woods Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoods Bay runs about 167 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
MeasuredWoods Bay 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 Woods Bay is in
Woods Bay sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Woods Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Woods Bay
Every plant below cleared Woods Bay's own zone 6a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woods Bay?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Woods Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woods Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAPA'S WOODSBAY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WOODSBAY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WINDJAMMER BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FLATHEAD LAKE LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BAY AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- PACIFICORP TRANSFORMER YARDSuperfund · 3.1 mi
- BIGFORK WATER AND SEWER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BIGFORK STAGE STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- CALUMET CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- CURTIS & CURTIS CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- KAY GB PROPERTIES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- EAGLE BEND YACHT HARBORUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woods Bay'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 Woods Bay.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Woods Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woods Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woods Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woods Bay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woods Bay — Nitrate (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (42 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Woods Bay
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 Woods Bay average
Your land is one point inside Woods Bay
Everything above resolves to Woods Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 870 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 Woods Bay Average
Woods Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Woods Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Woods Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Woods Bay's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woods Bay's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woods Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woods Bay, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woods Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woods Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woods Bay average
How we know this about Woods Bay
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 Woods Bay’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 Woods Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Woods Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woods Bay typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Woods Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woods Bay typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woods Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woods Bay sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 26, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woods Bay?
The federal record around Woods Bay is a meaningful one — 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles 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 Woods Bay?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woods Bay's scale — its 6a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woods Bay'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 Woods Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woods Bay's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 870 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woods Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woods Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 10 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woods Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woods Bay's boundary and the 870 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woods Bay's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woods Bay's 870 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woods Bay's 870 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woods Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 870 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Woods Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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