Crowley County, in Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Crowley County lies within the Arkansas River Valley (Rocky Ford–Pueblo Corridor) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Crowley County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Crowley 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 Crowley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crowley County — the short answer
Crowley County, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 504K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 504K 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 5b is Crowley County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crowley County's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Crowley County
Across a year, Crowley County accumulates about 3,176 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,344 more than the middle Colorado county — ahead of 57 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 Crowley County
Across Crowley County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Vonid, Ordway, and Deertrail are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Crowley County
The USDA soil survey maps 69% of Crowley County as well drained — but another 30% drains differently: 19% somewhat excessively drained, 9% excessively drained.
Vonid is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Ordway (14%) and Deertrail (12%).
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 Crowley County
Each reading below is measured for Crowley 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 Crowley County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Crowley County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, 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
MeasuredCrowley County runs about 178 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
MeasuredCrowley County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Crowley County is in
Crowley County sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Crowley County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Crowley County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 178-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 Crowley 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 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 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What gets applied to farmland in Crowley County
USGS estimates 8,965 lb of 2,4-d on Crowley County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (8,528 lb) and Dicamba (4,055 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 Crowley County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Crowley County — 30 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Crowley County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Crowley County
Closest first, across Crowley County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CROWLEY COUNTY NURSING CENTERBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- Town Of OrdwayUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Ordway SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Reeves BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Bens Gas HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- FARR BETTER FEEDSToxics Release Inventory · 6.3 mi
- Jr's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- ORDWAY FEEDYARD LLCBrownfields · 6.4 mi
- ORDWAY FEEDYARD LLCCAFO · 6.4 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #11080Brownfields · 6.4 mi
- S & J TorglerUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- SC02105727BBBNitrate · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crowley 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 Crowley County.
Total Sites
30
across Crowley County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Crowley County
Severity Distribution
across Crowley County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crowley County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites across Crowley 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 Crowley 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 Crowley County average
Your land is one point inside Crowley County
Everything above resolves to Crowley County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 504K 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 Crowley County Average
Crowley County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Crowley County
- ●One soil character for all of Crowley County
- ●Frost dates read at Crowley County's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crowley County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Crowley County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crowley County, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crowley County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crowley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crowley County average
How we know this about Crowley 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 Crowley County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Crowley County
When does frost risk typically end in Crowley County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crowley County 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.
How long is the growing season in Crowley County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crowley County sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crowley County?
The federal record around Crowley County is a meaningful one — 30 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Brownfields record about 6.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Crowley County's scale — its 5b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crowley 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 Crowley County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Crowley County's own scale — its own ~178-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 30 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crowley County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crowley County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Crowley CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 30 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 6.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Crowley County's boundary and the 503,953 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crowley County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Crowley 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 Crowley County — the ~178 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 Crowley County's 503,953 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 30 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 Crowley Countyread your own land →