Aspen Park, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Aspen Park, 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 Aspen Park 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 Aspen Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Aspen Park — the short answer
Aspen Park, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Aspen Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aspen Park's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aspen Park
Each reading below is measured for Aspen Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAspen Park runs about 141 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAspen Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Aspen Park is in
Aspen Park sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Aspen Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Aspen Park
Every plant below cleared Aspen Park's own zone 5b and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aspen Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Aspen Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aspen Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-b Petroleum #5Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- King Soopers #87 Fuel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CONIFER/ASPEN PARK CARBON TETRACHLORIDESuperfund · 750 ft
- U S EPA REGION VIIIBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Charles F CaaschUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Kevins CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SC00607111DACANitrate · 1400 ft
- KING SOOPERS 87Brownfields · 1400 ft
- Evergreen #20Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- R Greens Contracting IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SafewayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Meyer Ranch ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aspen Park'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 Aspen Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aspen Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aspen Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aspen Park, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 322 sites within ~10 miles of Aspen Park. 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 Aspen Park
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 Aspen Park average
Your land is one point inside Aspen Park
Everything above resolves to Aspen Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Aspen Park Average
Aspen Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Aspen Park
- ●One soil character for all of Aspen Park
- ●Frost dates read at Aspen Park's scale: May 14 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aspen Park's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aspen Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aspen Park, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aspen Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aspen Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aspen Park average
How we know this about Aspen Park
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 Aspen Park’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 Aspen Park
When does frost risk typically end in Aspen Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aspen Park typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
When is the first frost in Aspen Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aspen Park typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aspen Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aspen Park sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 18, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aspen Park?
The federal record around Aspen Park is a meaningful one — 478 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (322), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Aspen Park?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Aspen Park rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Aspen Park's scale — its 5b band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aspen Park'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 Aspen Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Aspen Park's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,577 acres it covers and 478 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aspen Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aspen Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Oct 2 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 478 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aspen Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aspen Park's boundary and the 1,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aspen Park's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aspen Park's 1,577 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 Aspen Park's 1,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aspen Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,577 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Aspen Park-wide figureread your own land →
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