Cathedral, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and okra, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cathedral, 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 Cathedral 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 Cathedral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cathedral — the short answer
Cathedral, Colorado: USDA zone 4b, about 107 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~107
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 4b is Cathedral's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cathedral's 107-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cathedral
Each reading below is measured for Cathedral itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCathedral runs about 107 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
MeasuredCathedral sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Cathedral is in
Cathedral sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cathedral's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hinsdale County.
What Grows in Cathedral
Every plant below cleared Cathedral's own zone 4b and its 107-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cathedral?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — 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 Cathedral
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cathedral. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC04500225DBANitrate · 2.8 mi
- Allara TunnelMining · 5.7 mi
- Unnamed ProspectsMining · 5.7 mi
- Woodmansee MineMining · 5.7 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 5.8 mi
- UnknownMining · 6.0 mi
- Cascade MineMining · 6.2 mi
- Cebolla DistrictMining · 7.4 mi
- Unnamed Thorium ProspectMining · 7.9 mi
- Unnamed Thorium ProspectsMining · 9.3 mi
Measured from Cathedral'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 Cathedral.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cathedral
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Cathedral
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 Cathedral average
Your land is one point inside Cathedral
Everything above resolves to Cathedral as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Cathedral Average
Cathedral Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cathedral
- ●One soil character for all of Cathedral
- ●Frost dates read at Cathedral's scale: Jun 4 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cathedral's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cathedral
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cathedral, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cathedral averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cathedral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cathedral average
How we know this about Cathedral
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 Cathedral’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 Cathedral
When does frost risk typically end in Cathedral?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cathedral typically lands around Jun 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Cathedral?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cathedral typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 107 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cathedral?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cathedral sees about 107 frost-free days — roughly Jun 4 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 25 to Sep 5, about 72 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cathedral?
The federal record around Cathedral shows 18 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles 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 gardeners stretch the season in Cathedral?
With about 107 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cathedral 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 135 to 163 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cathedral's scale — its 4b band and its 107-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cathedral'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 Cathedral’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cathedral's own scale — its own ~107-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,619 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cathedral's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cathedral's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 4 and Sep 19 and the ~107-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cathedral, the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cathedral's boundary and the 13,619 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~107-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cathedral's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cathedral's 13,619 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hinsdale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hinsdale 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 Hinsdale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cathedral's 13,619 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cathedral you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,619 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 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 Cathedral-wide figureread your own land →