Acres Green, Colorado, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Acres Green, 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 Acres Green 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 Acres Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Acres Green — the short answer
Acres Green, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 385 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 385 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 Acres Green's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Acres Green's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Acres Green
Each reading below is measured for Acres Green itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAcres Green runs about 170 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
MeasuredAcres Green 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 Acres Green is in
Acres Green sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Acres Green's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Douglas County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Acres Green
Every plant below cleared Acres Green's own zone 6a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Acres Green?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Acres Green
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Acres Green. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAM'S WEST INC - SAM'S CLUB #6634Brownfields · 2500 ft
- THE PEP BOYS-MANNY,MOE&JACK #271Brownfields · 2600 ft
- BANFIELD PET HOSPITAL #5282Brownfields · 2600 ft
- PARK MEADOWS OUTPATIENT SURGERYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SURGERY CENTER AT LONE TREEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SC00606705DAA URLUS 8Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Waterway Gas & WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Sam's Club #6634Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KING SOOPERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Circle K Store #2709892Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SAVERS STORE #1194Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- DON MASSEY CADILLACBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Acres Green'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 Acres Green.
Total Sites
2,057
within ~10 miles of Acres Green
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Acres Green
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Acres Green
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Acres Green
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 Acres Green average
Your land is one point inside Acres Green
Everything above resolves to Acres Green as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 385 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 Acres Green Average
Acres Green Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Acres Green
- ●One soil character for all of Acres Green
- ●Frost dates read at Acres Green's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Acres Green's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Acres Green
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Acres Green, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Acres Green averages can't show:
We read public map data around Acres Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Acres Green average
How we know this about Acres Green
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 Acres Green’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 Acres Green
When does frost risk typically end in Acres Green?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Acres Green typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Acres Green?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Acres Green typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Acres Green?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Acres Green sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Acres Green?
The federal record around Acres Green runs heavier than most — 2,057 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,011), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles 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 Acres Green?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Acres Green's scale — its 6a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Acres Green'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 Acres Green’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Acres Green's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 385 acres it covers and 2,057 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Acres Green's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Acres Green's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 15 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,057 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Acres Green, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Acres Green's boundary and the 385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Acres Green sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Acres Green's 385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Acres Green's 385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Acres Green you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 385 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Acres Green-wide figureread your own land →
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