Carbondale, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Carbondale, 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 Carbondale 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 Carbondale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carbondale — the short answer
Carbondale, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Carbondale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carbondale's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carbondale
Each reading below is measured for Carbondale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarbondale runs about 163 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
MeasuredCarbondale 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 Carbondale is in
Carbondale sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Carbondale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Garfield County is mostly Colorado Plateaus. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Carbondale
Every plant below cleared Carbondale's own zone 6a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carbondale?
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 Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Carbondale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carbondale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MID-CONTINENT RESOURCES INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- Roaring Fork SD Bus Barn - CarbondaleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- USDA USFS R02 SOPRIS RDBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Carbondale Car CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Schmack IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Joseph D HamreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Crystal River SpasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Carbondale Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 7-Eleven #22088Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CDOT CarbondaleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY MARKET 447Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Pitkin Iron CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carbondale'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 Carbondale.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Carbondale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carbondale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carbondale
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Carbondale
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 Carbondale average
Your land is one point inside Carbondale
Everything above resolves to Carbondale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Carbondale Average
Carbondale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Carbondale
- ●One soil character for all of Carbondale
- ●Frost dates read at Carbondale's scale: May 1 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carbondale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carbondale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carbondale, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carbondale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carbondale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carbondale average
How we know this about Carbondale
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 Carbondale’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 Carbondale
When does frost risk typically end in Carbondale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carbondale typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Carbondale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carbondale typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carbondale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carbondale sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 27, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carbondale?
The federal record around Carbondale shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carbondale?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carbondale's scale — its 6a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carbondale'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 Carbondale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carbondale's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,329 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carbondale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carbondale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 11 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carbondale, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carbondale's boundary and the 1,329 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Carbondale sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carbondale's 1,329 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garfield 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 Garfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carbondale's 1,329 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carbondale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,329 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Carbondale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoCarbondale sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides