Catherine, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Catherine, 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 Catherine 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 Catherine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Catherine — the short answer
Catherine, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 549 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 549 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 Catherine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catherine's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Catherine
Each reading below is measured for Catherine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCatherine runs about 157 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
MeasuredCatherine 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 Catherine is in
Catherine sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Catherine'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 Catherine
Every plant below cleared Catherine's own zone 5b and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Catherine?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Catherine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Catherine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Catherine StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Ron TroxelUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAFARGE POWERS READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- J W EarthmovingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Mid-continent ResourcesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WOLF SALES ENTERPRISES INC DBA PAPER WISEBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Mt Sopris NurseryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Fitzsimmons Motor CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- El Jebel ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CITY MARKET 433Brownfields · 3.2 mi
- Joseph D HamreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Willits General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catherine'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 Catherine.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Catherine
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Catherine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Catherine
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.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Catherine
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 Catherine average
Your land is one point inside Catherine
Everything above resolves to Catherine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 549 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 Catherine Average
Catherine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Catherine
- ●One soil character for all of Catherine
- ●Frost dates read at Catherine's scale: May 3 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catherine's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Catherine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catherine, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catherine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catherine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catherine average
How we know this about Catherine
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 Catherine’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 Catherine
When does frost risk typically end in Catherine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catherine typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Catherine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Catherine typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Catherine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catherine sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 23, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catherine?
The federal record around Catherine shows 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 I protect my plants from frost in Catherine?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Catherine's scale — its 5b band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catherine'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 Catherine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Catherine's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 549 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catherine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Catherine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 7 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Catherine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Catherine's boundary and the 549 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Catherine 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 Catherine's 549 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 Catherine's 549 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Catherine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 549 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Catherine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoCatherine sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides