Buena Vista, 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 Buena Vista, 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 Buena Vista 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 Buena Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buena Vista — the short answer
Buena Vista, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- 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 Buena Vista's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buena Vista's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buena Vista
Each reading below is measured for Buena Vista itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuena Vista runs about 135 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
MeasuredBuena Vista 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 Buena Vista is in
Buena Vista sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Buena Vista's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chaffee County.
What Grows in Buena Vista
Every plant below cleared Buena Vista's own zone 5b and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buena Vista?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Buena Vista
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buena Vista. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mary A ClaimsMining · 1400 ft
- QuakerMining · 1400 ft
- Yellow BirdMining · 1400 ft
- Sunset ShaftMining · 1400 ft
- Eureka MountainMining · 1400 ft
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZBNVBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Stop N Save #26Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Loaf N Jug #9Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ACA Products IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY MARKET 437Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Valley OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7-Eleven #19565Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buena Vista'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 Buena Vista.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buena Vista
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buena Vista
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buena Vista, Mining runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Buena Vista. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Buena Vista
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 Buena Vista average
Your land is one point inside Buena Vista
Everything above resolves to Buena Vista 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 Buena Vista Average
Buena Vista Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Buena Vista
- ●One soil character for all of Buena Vista
- ●Frost dates read at Buena Vista's scale: May 18 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buena Vista's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buena Vista
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buena Vista, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buena Vista averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buena Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buena Vista average
How we know this about Buena Vista
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 Buena Vista’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 Buena Vista
When does frost risk typically end in Buena Vista?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buena Vista typically lands around May 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Buena Vista?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buena Vista typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buena Vista?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buena Vista sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 16, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buena Vista?
The federal record around Buena Vista is a meaningful one — 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Mining record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Buena Vista?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Buena Vista 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Buena Vista's scale — its 5b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buena Vista'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 Buena Vista’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Buena Vista's own scale — its own ~135-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,224 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buena Vista's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buena Vista's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 30 and the ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buena Vista, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buena Vista's boundary and the 2,224 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buena Vista's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buena Vista's 2,224 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chaffee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chaffee 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 Chaffee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buena Vista's 2,224 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buena Vista you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,224 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.3 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 Buena Vista-wide figureread your own land →