Brush, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brush, 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 Brush 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 Brush — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brush — the short answer
Brush, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Brush's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brush's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brush
Each reading below is measured for Brush itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrush runs about 173 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
MeasuredBrush 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 Brush is in
Brush sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Brush's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Brush
Every plant below cleared Brush's own zone 5b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brush?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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 Brush
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brush. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brush Public Schools Re-2 (j)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Love's Travel Stop #649Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #3726Brownfields · 1600 ft
- JDs Quik Stop - BrushUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Grocery KartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Skips Conoco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Dilley Sand & GravelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EBEN EZER AL AND MCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Reynold A Olsen IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 7-Eleven #15955Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Morgan County ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUNSET MANORBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brush'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 Brush.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Brush
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brush
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brush
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brush, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Brush. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Brush
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 Brush average
Your land is one point inside Brush
Everything above resolves to Brush 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 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 Brush Average
Brush Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Brush
- ●One soil character for all of Brush
- ●Frost dates read at Brush's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brush's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brush
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brush, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brush averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brush — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brush average
How we know this about Brush
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 Brush’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 Brush
When does frost risk typically end in Brush?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brush typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Brush?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brush 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 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brush?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brush sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 1, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brush?
The federal record around Brush is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Brush?
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 Brush's scale — its 5b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brush'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 Brush’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brush's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,812 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brush's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brush's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 15 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brush, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brush's boundary and the 1,812 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brush's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brush's 1,812 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brush's 1,812 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brush you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,812 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Brush-wide figureread your own land →
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