Worden, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Worden, 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 Worden 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 Worden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Worden — the short answer
Worden, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Worden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Worden's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Worden
Each reading below is measured for Worden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWorden runs about 158 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
MeasuredWorden 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 Worden is in
Worden sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Worden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yellowstone County.
What Grows in Worden
Every plant below cleared Worden's own zone 4b and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Worden?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — 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 Worden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Worden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PROJECT TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WESCHENFELDER FEEDLOT INC WORDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- AGRI CATTLE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CORNER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PROJECT MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- VALLEY FARMERS SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VALLEY FARMERS SUPPLYBrownfields · 850 ft
- SCHOOL DIST 24Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WORDEN OLD COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PROJECT VETERINARY CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TIGER TOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HUNTLEY PROJECT IRRIGATION DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Worden'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 Worden.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Worden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Worden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Worden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Worden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Worden — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Worden
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 Worden average
Your land is one point inside Worden
Everything above resolves to Worden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Worden Average
Worden Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Worden
- ●One soil character for all of Worden
- ●Frost dates read at Worden's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Worden's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Worden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Worden, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Worden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Worden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Worden average
How we know this about Worden
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 Worden’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 Worden
When does frost risk typically end in Worden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Worden typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Worden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Worden typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Worden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Worden sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 20, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Worden?
The federal record around Worden shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Worden?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Worden's scale — its 4b band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Worden'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 Worden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Worden's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,265 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Worden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Worden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 4 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Worden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Worden's boundary and the 1,265 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Worden's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Worden's 1,265 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yellowstone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Worden's 1,265 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Worden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,265 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 Worden-wide figureread your own land →
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