Eagle County, in Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Eagle County lies within the Colorado High Country (Central Rockies) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Eagle County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Eagle 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 Eagle County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Eagle County — the short answer
Eagle County, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 1.1M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- 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 Eagle County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle County's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Eagle County
Across a year, Eagle County accumulates about 1,152 growing degree days above 50°F, about 680 fewer than the middle Colorado county — ahead of 21 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 Eagle County
Across Eagle County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Cushool, Rentsac, and Cochetopa are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Eagle County
The USDA soil survey maps 76% of Eagle County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Cushool is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Rentsac (7%) and Cochetopa (5%).
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 Eagle County
Each reading below is measured for Eagle 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 Eagle 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 Eagle 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
MeasuredEagle County runs about 141 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEagle 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 Eagle County is in
Eagle County sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Eagle County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Eagle County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 141-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 Eagle County?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What gets applied to farmland in Eagle County
USGS estimates 2,052 lb of Glyphosate on Eagle County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (787 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (591 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 Eagle County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Eagle County — 481 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Eagle County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Eagle County
Closest first, across Eagle County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00408334ADNitrate · 2.7 mi
- H Arnold NottinghamUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CORDILLERA METRO DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- RED SKY RANCH AND HOLLAND CREEKBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- Blue-Bell, Lady Bell and AdjoininMining · 3.5 mi
- ARRA Background Monitoring Well 7Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- North Dakota Mine Kleckner & MackMining · 3.7 mi
- ARRA Monitoring Well Bike Path 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- ARRA Background Monitoring Well 6Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- ARRA Monitoring Well Equestrian Center 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- ARRA Monitoring Well Horse Pasture 2Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- ARRA Individual Sewage Monitoring Well 4Nitrate · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagle 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 Eagle County.
Sources Checked
across Eagle County
Severity Distribution
across Eagle County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagle County, two things run higher than the national average across Eagle County — Nitrate (208 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Eagle 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 Eagle County average
Your land is one point inside Eagle County
Everything above resolves to Eagle 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 Eagle County Average
Eagle County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Eagle County
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle County
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle County's scale: May 13 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Eagle County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle County, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle County average
How we know this about Eagle 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 Eagle County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Eagle County
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle County typically lands around May 13, 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 Jun 3.
How long is the growing season in Eagle County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle County sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 17, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle County?
The federal record around Eagle County runs heavier than most — 481 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (208), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.7 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 gardeners stretch the season in Eagle County?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Eagle County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Eagle County's scale — its 6a band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle 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 Eagle County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Eagle County's own scale — its own ~141-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 481 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Eagle CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 481 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Eagle County's boundary and the 1,078,060 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Eagle County sitting wholly inside the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Eagle 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 Eagle County — the ~141 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 Eagle County's 1,078,060 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 481 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 Eagle Countyread your own land →