De Beque, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in De Beque, 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 De Beque 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 De Beque — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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De Beque — the short answer
De Beque, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is De Beque's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against De Beque's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in De Beque
Each reading below is measured for De Beque itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDe Beque runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDe Beque sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 De Beque is in
De Beque sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at De Beque's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mesa County.
What Grows in De Beque
Every plant below cleared De Beque's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in De Beque?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near De Beque
Closest first, within ~10 miles of De Beque. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Djs Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Jim Dible Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- De Beque Coutry StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- W E PritchardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- GONZO LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CDOT De BequeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DEBEQUE DEW POINT CONTROL FACILITY/CANYOBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- North Plateau Compressor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- De Beque Section HqUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Williams - De BequeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Bronco Flats Compressor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KS INDUSTRIES LLCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from De Beque'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 De Beque.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of De Beque
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in De Beque
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 De Beque average
Your land is one point inside De Beque
Everything above resolves to De Beque as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 De Beque Average
De Beque Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across De Beque
- ●One soil character for all of De Beque
- ●Frost dates read at De Beque's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not De Beque's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in De Beque
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in De Beque, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that De Beque averages can't show:
We read public map data around De Beque — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the De Beque average
How we know this about De Beque
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 De Beque’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 De Beque
When does frost risk typically end in De Beque?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in De Beque typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in De Beque?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in De Beque typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in De Beque?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, De Beque sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in De Beque?
The federal record around De Beque is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles 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 De Beque?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at De Beque's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of De Beque'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 De Beque’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at De Beque's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,777 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- De Beque's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- De Beque's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near De Beque, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- De Beque's boundary and the 1,777 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at De Beque's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so De Beque's 1,777 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mesa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mesa 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 Mesa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among De Beque's 1,777 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of De Beque you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,777 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 De Beque-wide figureread your own land →
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