Divide, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Divide, 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 Divide 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 Divide — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Divide — the short answer
Divide, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 129 days between hard freezes, across 215 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~129
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 215 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 Divide's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Divide's 129-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Divide
Each reading below is measured for Divide itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDivide runs about 129 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
MeasuredDivide 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 Divide is in
Divide sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Divide's own centroid rather than borrowed from Teller County.
What Grows in Divide
Every plant below cleared Divide's own zone 5b and its 129-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Divide?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Divide
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Divide. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Divide ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CDOT Divide Hwy Construction ProjectUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Teller County Dept Of TransUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Alta #6115Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MATERIALS MANAGEMENT COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DIVIDE COLLISION CENTER / QUALITY COLLISION INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Stop N Save #23Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Black Cloud MineMining · 2.8 mi
- Black Cloud QuarryMining · 2.8 mi
- Round Top, Peacock, Rp LodesMining · 3.9 mi
- UCHEALTH PIKES PEAK REGIONAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- QUALITY FINISHES DENT REMOVAL INCBrownfields · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Divide'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 Divide.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Divide
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Divide
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Divide
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Divide, Mining runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Divide. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Divide
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 Divide average
Your land is one point inside Divide
Everything above resolves to Divide as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 215 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 Divide Average
Divide Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Divide
- ●One soil character for all of Divide
- ●Frost dates read at Divide's scale: May 21 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Divide's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Divide
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Divide, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Divide averages can't show:
We read public map data around Divide — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Divide average
How we know this about Divide
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 Divide’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 Divide
When does frost risk typically end in Divide?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Divide typically lands around May 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Divide?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Divide typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 129 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Divide?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Divide sees about 129 frost-free days — roughly May 21 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 11 to Sep 13, about 94 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Divide?
The federal record around Divide is a meaningful one — 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Divide?
With about 129 frost-free days between hard freezes, Divide 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 157 to 185 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 21 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Divide's scale — its 5b band and its 129-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Divide'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 Divide’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Divide's own scale — its own ~129-day season between 28°F freezes, the 215 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Divide's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Divide's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 21 and Sep 27 and the ~129-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Divide, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Divide's boundary and the 215 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~129-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Divide's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Divide's 215 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Teller County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Teller 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 Teller County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Divide's 215 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Divide you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 215 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Divide-wide figureread your own land →