Coal Creek, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Coal Creek, 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 Coal Creek 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 Coal Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coal Creek — the short answer
Coal Creek, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 764 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 764 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 Coal Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coal Creek's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coal Creek
Each reading below is measured for Coal Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoal Creek runs about 184 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
MeasuredCoal Creek 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 Coal Creek is in
Coal Creek sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Coal Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fremont County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Coal Creek
Every plant below cleared Coal Creek's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coal Creek?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Coal Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coal Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLORENCE CITY OFPFAS · 1.2 mi
- BRUCE MCCANDLESS CO VETS COMMUNITY LIVING CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CIRRUS DESIGN CORP-COLORADOBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE FLORENCEToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE FLORENCEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Fremont County Shop Dist #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Swede 66 Service StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Florence YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- J & J FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Vendettis IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Alta Convenience #6329Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Florence Conoco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coal Creek'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 Coal Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coal Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coal Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coal Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coal Creek — Mining (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (102 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Coal Creek
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 Coal Creek average
Your land is one point inside Coal Creek
Everything above resolves to Coal Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 764 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 Coal Creek Average
Coal Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Coal Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Coal Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Coal Creek's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coal Creek's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coal Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coal Creek, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coal Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coal Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coal Creek average
How we know this about Coal Creek
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 Coal Creek’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 Coal Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Coal Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coal Creek typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Coal Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coal Creek 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coal Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coal Creek sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 5, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coal Creek?
The federal record around Coal Creek is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest PFAS record about 1.2 miles 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 Coal Creek?
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 Coal Creek's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coal Creek'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 Coal Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coal Creek's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 764 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coal Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coal Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 19 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coal Creek, the closest PFAS record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coal Creek's boundary and the 764 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Coal Creek sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coal Creek's 764 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fremont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fremont 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 Fremont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coal Creek's 764 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coal Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 764 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.2 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 Coal Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoCoal Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides