Aguilar, 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 Aguilar, 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 Aguilar 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 Aguilar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Aguilar — the short answer
Aguilar, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 251 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 251 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 Aguilar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aguilar's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aguilar
Each reading below is measured for Aguilar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAguilar runs about 172 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
MeasuredAguilar 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 Aguilar is in
Aguilar sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Aguilar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Las Animas County.
What Grows in Aguilar
Every plant below cleared Aguilar's own zone 6a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aguilar?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Aguilar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aguilar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CDOT AguilarUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Las Animas CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Navajo Service StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Gulnare GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
Measured from Aguilar'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 Aguilar.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aguilar
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Aguilar
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 Aguilar average
Your land is one point inside Aguilar
Everything above resolves to Aguilar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 251 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 Aguilar Average
Aguilar Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Aguilar
- ●One soil character for all of Aguilar
- ●Frost dates read at Aguilar's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aguilar's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aguilar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aguilar, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aguilar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aguilar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aguilar average
How we know this about Aguilar
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 Aguilar’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 Aguilar
When does frost risk typically end in Aguilar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aguilar typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Aguilar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aguilar typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aguilar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aguilar sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 30, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aguilar?
The federal record around Aguilar is light — 4 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4), 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 Aguilar?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Aguilar's scale — its 6a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aguilar'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 Aguilar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Aguilar's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 251 acres it covers and 4 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aguilar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aguilar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 14 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aguilar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aguilar's boundary and the 251 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aguilar's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aguilar's 251 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Las Animas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Las Animas 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 Las Animas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aguilar's 251 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aguilar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 251 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 Aguilar-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoAguilar sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides