City of Creede, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include pumpkin, blackberry, lavender, and zucchini — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in City of Creede, 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 City of Creede 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 City of Creede — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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City of Creede — the short answer
City of Creede, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 96 days between hard freezes, across 606 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~96
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 606 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 5a is City of Creede's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against City of Creede's 96-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in City of Creede
Each reading below is measured for City of Creede itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCity of Creede runs about 96 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
MeasuredCity of Creede sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 City of Creede is in
City of Creede sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at City of Creede's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mineral County.
What Grows in City of Creede
Every plant below cleared City of Creede's own zone 5a and its 96-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in City of Creede?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near City of Creede
Closest first, within ~10 miles of City of Creede. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Casino LeaseMining · 550 ft
- Grande Army #1-4Mining · 550 ft
- TeresaMining · 550 ft
- ManitobaMining · 550 ft
- Creede StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Downstream Gas & MercantileUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Mineral County ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MustangMining · 1.0 mi
- BulldogMining · 1.0 mi
- EAST WILLOW CREEK AND WILLOW CREEKSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- Mammoth MineMining · 1.2 mi
- Exchequer TunnelMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from City of Creede'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 City of Creede.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of City of Creede
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around City of Creede, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of City of Creede — Mining (87 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in City of Creede
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 City of Creede average
Your land is one point inside City of Creede
Everything above resolves to City of Creede as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 606 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 City of Creede Average
City of Creede Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across City of Creede
- ●One soil character for all of City of Creede
- ●Frost dates read at City of Creede's scale: Jun 11 to Sep 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not City of Creede's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in City of Creede
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in City of Creede, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that City of Creede averages can't show:
We read public map data around City of Creede — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the City of Creede average
How we know this about City of Creede
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 City of Creede’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 City of Creede
When does frost risk typically end in City of Creede?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in City of Creede typically lands around Jun 11, 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 Jul 2.
When is the first frost in City of Creede?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in City of Creede typically arrives around Sep 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 1, so the watching starts about Aug 16 — about 96 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in City of Creede?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, City of Creede sees about 96 frost-free days — roughly Jun 11 through Sep 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 2 to Sep 1, about 61 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in City of Creede?
The federal record around City of Creede runs heavier than most — 96 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (87), the nearest Mining record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in City of Creede?
With about 96 frost-free days between hard freezes, City of Creede 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 124 to 152 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at City of Creede's scale — its 5a band and its 96-day season. Your yard writes its own version of City of Creede'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 City of Creede’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at City of Creede's own scale — its own ~96-day season between 28°F freezes, the 606 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- City of Creede's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- City of Creede's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 11 and Sep 15 and the ~96-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near City of Creede, the closest Mining record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- City of Creede's boundary and the 606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~96-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at City of Creede's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so City of Creede's 606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mineral County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mineral 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 Mineral County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among City of Creede's 606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of City of Creede you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.1 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 City of Creede-wide figureread your own land →
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