Arapahoe, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Arapahoe, 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 Arapahoe 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 Arapahoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arapahoe — the short answer
Arapahoe, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 177 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 177 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 Arapahoe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arapahoe's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arapahoe
Each reading below is measured for Arapahoe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArapahoe runs about 180 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
MeasuredArapahoe 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 Arapahoe is in
Arapahoe sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Arapahoe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cheyenne County.
What Grows in Arapahoe
Every plant below cleared Arapahoe's own zone 6a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arapahoe?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Arapahoe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arapahoe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC01404312BBANitrate · 1300 ft
- SC01404312ACC2Nitrate · 1800 ft
- SC01404306CDDNitrate · 4.9 mi
- SC01304206BCC1Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- SC01504202ABANitrate · 7.3 mi
- SC01304203CBCNitrate · 7.6 mi
- 13S 43W 36ABB 01Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- 13S 43W 36BAA 01Nitrate · 7.7 mi
- Steves ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- CDOT Cheyenne WellsUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- K C Electric AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- PURVIS CATTLE CO, INC.CAFO · 9.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arapahoe'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 Arapahoe.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Arapahoe
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arapahoe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arapahoe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arapahoe, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Arapahoe. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Arapahoe
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 Arapahoe average
Your land is one point inside Arapahoe
Everything above resolves to Arapahoe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 177 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 Arapahoe Average
Arapahoe Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Arapahoe
- ●One soil character for all of Arapahoe
- ●Frost dates read at Arapahoe's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arapahoe's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arapahoe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arapahoe, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arapahoe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arapahoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arapahoe average
How we know this about Arapahoe
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 Arapahoe’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 Arapahoe
When does frost risk typically end in Arapahoe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arapahoe typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Arapahoe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arapahoe typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arapahoe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arapahoe sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 5, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arapahoe?
The federal record around Arapahoe is light — 31 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Nitrate 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 Arapahoe?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arapahoe's scale — its 6a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arapahoe'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 Arapahoe’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arapahoe's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 177 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arapahoe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arapahoe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 19 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arapahoe, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arapahoe's boundary and the 177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arapahoe's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arapahoe's 177 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cheyenne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cheyenne 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 Cheyenne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arapahoe's 177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arapahoe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Arapahoe-wide figureread your own land →
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