Craig, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Craig, 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 Craig 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 Craig — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Craig — the short answer
Craig, Colorado: USDA zone 4a, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 4a is Craig's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Craig's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Craig
Each reading below is measured for Craig itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCraig runs about 127 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
MeasuredCraig sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Craig is in
Craig sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Craig's own centroid rather than borrowed from Moffat County.
What Grows in Craig
Every plant below cleared Craig's own zone 4a and its 127-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Craig?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Craig
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Craig. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Former Jims Tire & Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CRAIG FORD MERCURY INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SANDROCK RIDGE CARE & REHABBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CITY MARKET 415Brownfields · 1200 ft
- Craig Gilco StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Rollins Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- M & M Standard Gray CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Husky SsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Amoco Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KMART #7560Brownfields · 1800 ft
- Craig Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SIMONS PETROLEUM, INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Craig'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 Craig.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Craig
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Craig
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Craig
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Craig, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Craig — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (48 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Craig
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 Craig average
Your land is one point inside Craig
Everything above resolves to Craig as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Craig Average
Craig Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Craig
- ●One soil character for all of Craig
- ●Frost dates read at Craig's scale: May 20 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Craig's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Craig
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Craig, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Craig averages can't show:
We read public map data around Craig — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Craig average
How we know this about Craig
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 Craig’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 Craig
When does frost risk typically end in Craig?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Craig typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Craig?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Craig typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Craig?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Craig sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 10, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Craig?
The federal record around Craig is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Craig?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Craig 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 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Craig's scale — its 4a band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Craig'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 Craig’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Craig's own scale — its own ~127-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,247 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Craig's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Craig's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 24 and the ~127-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Craig, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Craig's boundary and the 3,247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~127-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Craig's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Craig's 3,247 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Moffat County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Moffat 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 Moffat County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Craig's 3,247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Craig you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,247 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Craig-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoCraig sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides