Arvada, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Arvada, 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 Arvada 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 Arvada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arvada — the short answer
Arvada, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 25K 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 Arvada's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arvada's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arvada
Each reading below is measured for Arvada itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArvada runs about 185 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
MeasuredArvada 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 Arvada is in
Arvada sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Arvada's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jefferson County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arvada
Every plant below cleared Arvada's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arvada?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Arvada
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arvada. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTER - ARVADA 0882Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- HONEYWELL, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- CRUSOE ENERGY SYSTEMSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SC00307001AA G-4Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SC00307001ABA1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SC00307001AB G-16Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SC00307001ABAB G-1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Arstova NvUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MT2 LLC - METALS TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Twin Star Energy #532Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SC00307001ABB G-26Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Denver InstrumentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arvada'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 Arvada.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arvada
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arvada
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Arvada
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 Arvada average
Your land is one point inside Arvada
Everything above resolves to Arvada as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 25K 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 city 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 Arvada Average
Arvada Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Arvada
- ●One soil character for all of Arvada
- ●Frost dates read at Arvada's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arvada's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arvada
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arvada, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arvada averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arvada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arvada average
How we know this about Arvada
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Arvada’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Arvada
When does frost risk typically end in Arvada?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arvada typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Arvada?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arvada typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arvada?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arvada sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 7, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arvada?
The federal record around Arvada runs heavier than most — 2,520 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,365), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Arvada?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arvada's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arvada'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 Arvada’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arvada's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 24,953 acres it covers and 2,520 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arvada's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arvada's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 21 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,520 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arvada, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arvada's boundary and the 24,953 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arvada 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 Arvada's 24,953 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arvada's 24,953 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arvada you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 24,953 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Arvada-wide figureread your own land →
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