Commerce City, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Commerce City, 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 Commerce City 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 Commerce City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Commerce City — the short answer
Commerce City, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Commerce City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Commerce City's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Commerce City
Each reading below is measured for Commerce City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCommerce City runs about 181 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
MeasuredCommerce City 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 Commerce City is in
Commerce City sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Commerce City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Commerce City
Every plant below cleared Commerce City's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Commerce City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (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 Commerce City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Commerce City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-Eleven #34087Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #12422Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- AUTOZONE #6236Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- KING SOOPERS 114Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- King Soopers Fuel #114Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- My Goods Market #6655Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Rock Creek Investments PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 7-Eleven #38351Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SC00206713CADNitrate · 2.3 mi
- SC00206619CCDNitrate · 2.4 mi
- TOWER LANDFILL INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICE LLC BDU5Brownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Commerce City'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 Commerce City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Commerce City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Commerce City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Commerce City, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 107 sites within ~10 miles of Commerce City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Commerce City
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 Commerce City average
Your land is one point inside Commerce City
Everything above resolves to Commerce City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 city 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 Commerce City Average
Commerce City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Commerce City
- ●One soil character for all of Commerce City
- ●Frost dates read at Commerce City's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Commerce City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Commerce City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Commerce City, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Commerce City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Commerce City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Commerce City average
How we know this about Commerce City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Commerce City’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Commerce City
When does frost risk typically end in Commerce City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Commerce City typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Commerce City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Commerce City 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Commerce City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Commerce City sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 5, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Commerce City?
The federal record around Commerce City runs heavier than most — 1,659 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (703), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 I protect my plants from frost in Commerce City?
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 Commerce City's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Commerce City'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 Commerce City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Commerce City's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,393 acres it covers and 1,659 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Commerce City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Commerce City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 19 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,659 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Commerce City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Commerce City's boundary and the 23,393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Commerce City's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Commerce City's 23,393 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Commerce City's 23,393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Commerce City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,393 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Commerce City-wide figureread your own land →
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