Crook, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crook, 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 Crook 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 Crook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crook — the short answer
Crook, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 86 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 86 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 5b is Crook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crook's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crook
Each reading below is measured for Crook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrook 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
MeasuredCrook 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 Crook is in
Crook sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Crook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Crook
Every plant below cleared Crook's own zone 5b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crook?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Crook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Union Pacific RailroadUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KUSKIE OIL - 301 HIGHWAY 138Brownfields · 400 ft
- SB01004911BCDNitrate · 500 ft
- KUSKIE OIL COBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SB01004915BCC NAWQA 21Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- SB01004912DBNitrate · 1.5 mi
- CDOT CrookUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Kuskies Interstate SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SB01004805CCC NAWQA 22Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- OTR FEEDLOTCAFO · 6.7 mi
- SB01004811AADNitrate · 6.8 mi
- D & D FEEDLOT WESTCAFO · 6.9 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crook'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 Crook.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Crook
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crook
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Crook
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 Crook average
Your land is one point inside Crook
Everything above resolves to Crook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 86 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 town 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 Crook Average
Crook Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Crook
- ●One soil character for all of Crook
- ●Frost dates read at Crook's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crook's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crook, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crook average
How we know this about Crook
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crook’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Crook
When does frost risk typically end in Crook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crook typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Crook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crook typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crook sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 30, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crook?
The federal record around Crook is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crook?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crook's scale — its 5b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crook'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 Crook’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crook's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 86 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 14 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crook's boundary and the 86 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crook's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crook's 86 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan 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 Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crook's 86 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 86 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Crook-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region