Chacra, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chacra, 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 Chacra 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 Chacra — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chacra — the short answer
Chacra, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 605 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 605 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 Chacra's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chacra's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chacra
Each reading below is measured for Chacra itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChacra runs about 171 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
MeasuredChacra 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 Chacra is in
Chacra sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Chacra's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garfield County.
What Grows in Chacra
Every plant below cleared Chacra's own zone 6a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chacra?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Chacra
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chacra. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PSCO - SHOSHONE HYDROBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1669Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- SC00609003DC00Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- CITY MARKET 441Brownfields · 3.2 mi
- Kum & Go #927Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Burning Mountain Rv ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Stop N Save #12Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- NEW CASTLE TOWN OFPFAS · 4.2 mi
- New Castle Parts DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Three Rivers RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- New Castle General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- New Castle GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chacra'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 Chacra.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Chacra
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chacra
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chacra
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 Chacra
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 Chacra average
Your land is one point inside Chacra
Everything above resolves to Chacra as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 605 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 Chacra Average
Chacra Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chacra
- ●One soil character for all of Chacra
- ●Frost dates read at Chacra's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chacra's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chacra
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chacra, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chacra averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chacra — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chacra average
How we know this about Chacra
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 Chacra’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 Chacra
When does frost risk typically end in Chacra?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chacra typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Chacra?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chacra typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chacra?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chacra sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 29, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chacra?
The federal record around Chacra shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Chacra?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chacra's scale — its 6a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chacra'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 Chacra’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chacra's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 605 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chacra's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chacra's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 13 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chacra, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chacra's boundary and the 605 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chacra's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chacra's 605 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 Chacra's 605 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chacra you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 605 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Chacra-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoChacra sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides