Arboles, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arboles, 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 Arboles 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 Arboles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arboles — the short answer
Arboles, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- 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
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6b is Arboles's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arboles's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arboles
Each reading below is measured for Arboles itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArboles runs about 165 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
MeasuredArboles sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Arboles is in
Arboles sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Arboles's own centroid rather than borrowed from Archuleta County.
What Grows in Arboles
Every plant below cleared Arboles's own zone 6b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arboles?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Arboles
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arboles. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NB03200517ADANitrate · 700 ft
- Piedra Peak PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- San Juan MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NB03200508CCDNitrate · 1700 ft
- NB03200517ABDNitrate · 2200 ft
- NB03200517ACB USGS 370115107244800Nitrate · 2300 ft
- NB03200516BCBNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Navajo State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NB03200520ABA2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- NB03200520AABNitrate · 1.0 mi
- NB03200509ACDNitrate · 1.7 mi
- NB03200504CCANitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arboles'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 Arboles.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arboles
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arboles
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arboles, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Arboles. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Arboles
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 Arboles average
Your land is one point inside Arboles
Everything above resolves to Arboles as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Arboles Average
Arboles Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Arboles
- ●One soil character for all of Arboles
- ●Frost dates read at Arboles's scale: May 3 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arboles's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arboles
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arboles, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arboles averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arboles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arboles average
How we know this about Arboles
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 Arboles’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 Arboles
When does frost risk typically end in Arboles?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arboles typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Arboles?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arboles 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 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arboles?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arboles sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 1, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arboles?
The federal record around Arboles shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Arboles?
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 Arboles's scale — its 6b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arboles'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 Arboles’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arboles's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,299 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arboles's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arboles's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 15 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arboles, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arboles's boundary and the 3,299 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arboles's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arboles's 3,299 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Archuleta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Archuleta 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 Archuleta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arboles's 3,299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arboles you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,299 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Arboles-wide figureread your own land →