Blue Valley, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blue Valley, 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 Blue Valley 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 Blue Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue Valley — the short answer
Blue Valley, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 129 days between hard freezes, across 673 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~129
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 673 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 Blue Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Valley's 129-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Valley
Each reading below is measured for Blue Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Valley runs about 129 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
MeasuredBlue Valley 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 Blue Valley is in
Blue Valley sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Blue Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clear Creek County.
What Grows in Blue Valley
Every plant below cleared Blue Valley's own zone 5b and its 129-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Valley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — 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 Blue Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- XLN - 26Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Santa Fe Mountain Beryl ProspectMining · 1.2 mi
- Santa Fe Mt., Sawmill GulchMining · 1.6 mi
- InternationalMining · 1.7 mi
- Bear Creek & Little BossMining · 2.0 mi
- Santa Fe MountainMining · 2.0 mi
- Gayno IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- GroverMining · 2.4 mi
- Grover Winsor PegmatiteMining · 2.4 mi
- Mt. JudgeMining · 2.6 mi
- Grover MineMining · 2.8 mi
- COLORADO DEPT OF TRANS - IDAHO SPRINGSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Valley'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 Blue Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Valley, Mining runs higher than the national average — 525 sites within ~10 miles of Blue Valley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Blue Valley
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 Blue Valley average
Your land is one point inside Blue Valley
Everything above resolves to Blue Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 673 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 Blue Valley Average
Blue Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Blue Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Valley's scale: May 22 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Valley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Valley, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Valley average
How we know this about Blue Valley
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 Blue Valley’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 Blue Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Valley typically lands around May 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 Jun 12.
When is the first frost in Blue Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Valley typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 129 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Valley sees about 129 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 14, about 94 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Valley?
The federal record around Blue Valley runs heavier than most — 640 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (525), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Blue Valley?
With about 129 frost-free days between hard freezes, Blue Valley 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 157 to 185 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Blue Valley's scale — its 5b band and its 129-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Valley'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 Blue Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue Valley's own scale — its own ~129-day season between 28°F freezes, the 673 acres it covers and 640 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Sep 28 and the ~129-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 640 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Valley's boundary and the 673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~129-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blue Valley's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue Valley's 673 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clear Creek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clear Creek 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 Clear Creek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Valley's 673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 673 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 Blue Valley-wide figureread your own land →