Deer Trail, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deer Trail, 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 Deer Trail 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 Deer Trail — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Trail — the short answer
Deer Trail, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 814 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 814 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 Deer Trail's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Trail's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Trail
Each reading below is measured for Deer Trail itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Trail runs about 166 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
MeasuredDeer Trail 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 Deer Trail is in
Deer Trail sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Deer Trail's own centroid rather than borrowed from Arapahoe County.
What Grows in Deer Trail
Every plant below cleared Deer Trail's own zone 5b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Trail?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Deer Trail
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Trail. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Deer Trail Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CDOT Deer TrailUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Lowry Titan Missle Site 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Johnny Turecek FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Corner GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Deer Trail 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Awful Johns ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Deer Trail School District 26jUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- COLORADO DEPT OF TRANS - DEER TRAILBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Hamacher ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FORMER LOWRY AFB TITAN MISSILE SITE 3 COMPLEX 2BSuperfund · 3.6 mi
- SC00505806BBD1 DTX10A MUDDY CREEKNitrate · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Trail'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 Deer Trail.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Deer Trail
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Trail
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Trail
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Trail, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Deer Trail. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Deer Trail
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 Deer Trail average
Your land is one point inside Deer Trail
Everything above resolves to Deer Trail as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 814 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 Deer Trail Average
Deer Trail Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Deer Trail
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Trail
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Trail's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Trail's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Trail
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Trail, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Trail averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Trail — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Trail average
How we know this about Deer Trail
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 Deer Trail’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 Deer Trail
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Trail?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Trail typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Deer Trail?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Trail typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Trail?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Trail sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 29, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Trail?
The federal record around Deer Trail is a meaningful one — 34 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Deer Trail?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Trail's scale — its 5b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Trail'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 Deer Trail’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deer Trail's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 814 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Trail's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Trail's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 13 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Trail, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Trail's boundary and the 814 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Trail's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Trail's 814 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Arapahoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Arapahoe 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 Arapahoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Trail's 814 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Trail you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 814 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 Deer Trail-wide figureread your own land →