Cheyenne County, in Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Cheyenne County lies within the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cheyenne County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cheyenne County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Cheyenne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cheyenne County — the short answer
Cheyenne County, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 1.1M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.1M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Cheyenne County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheyenne County's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cheyenne County
Across a year, Cheyenne County accumulates about 2,843 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,011 more than the middle Colorado county — ahead of 54 of Colorado’s 64 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Cheyenne County
Across Cheyenne County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Wiley, Valent, and Keith are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.8, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cheyenne County
The USDA soil survey maps 79% of Cheyenne County as well drained — but another 21% drains differently: 14% excessively drained, 6% somewhat excessively drained.
Wiley is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Valent (10%) and Keith (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Cheyenne County
Each reading below is measured for Cheyenne County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Cheyenne County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cheyenne County runs about pH 7.0–7.8, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCheyenne County runs about 170 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
MeasuredCheyenne County 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 Cheyenne County is in
Cheyenne County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Cheyenne County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cheyenne County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 170-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile.
Is it too late to plant in Cheyenne County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Cheyenne County
USGS estimates 386,937 lb of Glyphosate on Cheyenne County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (143,048 lb) and 2,4-d (140,008 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Cheyenne County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cheyenne County — 95 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 concentrated animal feeding operation. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Cheyenne County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cheyenne County
Closest first, across Cheyenne County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC01404622DADNitrate · 3.6 mi
- SC01404516CCCNitrate · 7.5 mi
- SC01504612DAANitrate · 7.6 mi
- SC01304520ABANitrate · 8.8 mi
- SC01504530BBBNitrate · 9.6 mi
- PROSPER RANCH FEEDLOTCAFO · 10.0 mi
- SC01204723AADNitrate · 11.0 mi
- SC01504511CCBNitrate · 11.0 mi
- Eddies 66 ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.2 mi
- Kit Carson School Dist R-1Underground Storage Tanks · 11.3 mi
- Cheyenne County Road & Bridge Dist #1Underground Storage Tanks · 11.3 mi
- Heins Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheyenne County'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 Cheyenne County.
Total Sites
95
across Cheyenne County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
across Cheyenne County
Severity Distribution
across Cheyenne County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheyenne County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites across Cheyenne County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cheyenne County
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 Cheyenne County average
Your land is one point inside Cheyenne County
Everything above resolves to Cheyenne County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.1M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Cheyenne County Average
Cheyenne County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cheyenne County
- ●One soil character for all of Cheyenne County
- ●Frost dates read at Cheyenne County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheyenne County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cheyenne County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheyenne County, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheyenne County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheyenne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheyenne County average
How we know this about Cheyenne County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Cheyenne County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cheyenne County
When does frost risk typically end in Cheyenne County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheyenne County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Cheyenne County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheyenne County sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheyenne County?
The federal record around Cheyenne County shows 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Cheyenne County's scale — its 6a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheyenne County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Colorado's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Cheyenne County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Cheyenne County's own scale — its own ~170-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 95 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheyenne County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheyenne County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cheyenne CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 95 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 3.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cheyenne County's boundary and the 1,138,096 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cheyenne County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cheyenne County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Cheyenne County — the ~170 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cheyenne County's 1,138,096 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 95 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Cheyenne Countyread your own land →