Cokedale, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Cokedale, 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 Cokedale 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 Cokedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cokedale — the short answer
Cokedale, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 131 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 131 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 Cokedale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cokedale's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cokedale
Each reading below is measured for Cokedale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCokedale runs about 165 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
MeasuredCokedale 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 Cokedale is in
Cokedale sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cokedale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Las Animas County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cokedale
Every plant below cleared Cokedale's own zone 6a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cokedale?
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 Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Cokedale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cokedale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC03306421CDBNitrate · 2.9 mi
- Moltrer Bros LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- ALS Gas Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #962Brownfields · 5.6 mi
- Mirastar #62027Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- Trinidad Fuel Stop #801Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CDOT TrinidadUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CSP - Trinidad #49241Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- Hilltop Shamrock Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Bobs ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Country Club ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Trinidad State Jr CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cokedale'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 Cokedale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cokedale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cokedale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cokedale, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Cokedale. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cokedale
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 Cokedale average
Your land is one point inside Cokedale
Everything above resolves to Cokedale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 131 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 Cokedale Average
Cokedale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cokedale
- ●One soil character for all of Cokedale
- ●Frost dates read at Cokedale's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cokedale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cokedale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cokedale, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cokedale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cokedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cokedale average
How we know this about Cokedale
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 Cokedale’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 Cokedale
When does frost risk typically end in Cokedale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cokedale typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Cokedale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cokedale typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cokedale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cokedale sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 27, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cokedale?
The federal record around Cokedale shows 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.9 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 Cokedale?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cokedale's scale — its 6a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cokedale'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 Cokedale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cokedale's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 131 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cokedale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cokedale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 11 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cokedale, the closest Nitrate record about 2.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cokedale's boundary and the 131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cokedale 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 Cokedale's 131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Las Animas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Las Animas 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 Las Animas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cokedale's 131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cokedale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 131 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.9 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 Cokedale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoCokedale sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.