Cascade-Chipita Park, 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.
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 Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cascade-Chipita Park — the short answer
Cascade-Chipita Park, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Cascade-Chipita Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cascade-Chipita Park's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cascade-Chipita Park
Each reading below is measured for Cascade-Chipita Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCascade-Chipita Park runs about 132 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
MeasuredCascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita Park is in
Cascade-Chipita Park sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cascade-Chipita Park's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: El Paso County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cascade-Chipita Park
Every plant below cleared Cascade-Chipita Park's own zone 5b and its 132-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cascade-Chipita Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Cascade-Chipita Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cascade-Chipita Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Green Mountain Falls DistrictMining · 0.6 mi
- Ute Pass Water Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- The MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Iron King MineMining · 1.4 mi
- Manitou Springs School Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Alta #6106Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Ute Pass RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Pikes Peak Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Bust General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #3805Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- QUALITY FINISHES DENT REMOVAL INCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #9561Brownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita Park.
Total Sites
287
within ~10 miles of Cascade-Chipita Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cascade-Chipita Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cascade-Chipita Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cascade-Chipita Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cascade-Chipita Park — Toxics Release Inventory (23 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita Park average
Your land is one point inside Cascade-Chipita Park
Everything above resolves to Cascade-Chipita Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Cascade-Chipita Park Average
Cascade-Chipita Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cascade-Chipita Park
- ●One soil character for all of Cascade-Chipita Park
- ●Frost dates read at Cascade-Chipita Park's scale: May 20 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cascade-Chipita Park's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cascade-Chipita Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cascade-Chipita Park, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cascade-Chipita Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cascade-Chipita Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cascade-Chipita Park average
How we know this about Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita Park
When does frost risk typically end in Cascade-Chipita Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cascade-Chipita Park typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Cascade-Chipita Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cascade-Chipita Park typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 132 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cascade-Chipita Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cascade-Chipita Park sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 15, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cascade-Chipita Park?
The federal record around Cascade-Chipita Park is a meaningful one — 287 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Mining record about 0.6 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 Cascade-Chipita Park?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cascade-Chipita 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 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cascade-Chipita Park's scale — its 5b band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cascade-Chipita 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 Cascade-Chipita Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cascade-Chipita Park's own scale — its own ~132-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,543 acres it covers and 287 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cascade-Chipita Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cascade-Chipita Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 29 and the ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 287 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cascade-Chipita Park, the closest Mining record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cascade-Chipita Park's boundary and the 8,543 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cascade-Chipita Park 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 Cascade-Chipita Park's 8,543 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cascade-Chipita Park's 8,543 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cascade-Chipita 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 8,543 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.6 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 Cascade-Chipita Park-wide figureread your own land →