Cheraw, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cheraw, 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 Cheraw 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 Cheraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cheraw — the short answer
Cheraw, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 115 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 115 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 Cheraw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheraw's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cheraw
Each reading below is measured for Cheraw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCheraw runs about 186 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
MeasuredCheraw 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 Cheraw is in
Cheraw sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cheraw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otero County.
What Grows in Cheraw
Every plant below cleared Cheraw's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cheraw?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Cheraw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cheraw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Farmland IndustriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Cheraw Consolidated SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SC02205418CBBNitrate · 2.0 mi
- SC02305509DAANitrate · 4.3 mi
- LJM AviationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Colorado Boys Ranch FoundationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- OLIVER MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 5.1 mi
- SC02305421AAA USGS 380226103272001Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- SC02305421BCDNitrate · 5.5 mi
- SC02305415CDB USGS 380237103265400Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- SC02305421DBDNitrate · 5.9 mi
- SC02305414CCBNitrate · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheraw'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 Cheraw.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Cheraw
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cheraw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cheraw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheraw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cheraw — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (70 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cheraw
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 Cheraw average
Your land is one point inside Cheraw
Everything above resolves to Cheraw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 115 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 Cheraw Average
Cheraw Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cheraw
- ●One soil character for all of Cheraw
- ●Frost dates read at Cheraw's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheraw's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cheraw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheraw, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheraw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheraw average
How we know this about Cheraw
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 Cheraw’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 Cheraw
When does frost risk typically end in Cheraw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheraw typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Cheraw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cheraw typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cheraw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheraw sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheraw?
The federal record around Cheraw is a meaningful one — 150 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Cheraw?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cheraw's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheraw'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 Cheraw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cheraw's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 115 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheraw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheraw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cheraw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cheraw's boundary and the 115 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cheraw's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cheraw's 115 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cheraw's 115 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cheraw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 115 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cheraw-wide figureread your own land →