Dove Creek, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Dove Creek, 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 Dove Creek 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 Dove Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dove Creek — the short answer
Dove Creek, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 366 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 366 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 Dove Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dove Creek's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dove Creek
Each reading below is measured for Dove Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDove Creek runs about 168 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
MeasuredDove Creek 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 Dove Creek is in
Dove Creek sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Dove Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dolores County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dove Creek
Every plant below cleared Dove Creek's own zone 6b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dove Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Dove Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dove Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dove Creek SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Sundial ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Dolores County School District RE-2 (J)Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Baron BrumleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Dolores County Road ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CDOT Dove CreekUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DOVE CREEK PRESSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Dolores County Schools Re-2 (j)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Dove Creek Superette IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Dove Creek TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- AT&T DOVE CREEK RBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Dove Creek AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dove Creek'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 Dove Creek.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dove Creek
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 Dove Creek
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 Dove Creek average
Your land is one point inside Dove Creek
Everything above resolves to Dove Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 366 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 Dove Creek Average
Dove Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dove Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Dove Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Dove Creek's scale: May 1 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dove Creek's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dove Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dove Creek, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dove Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dove Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dove Creek average
How we know this about Dove Creek
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 Dove Creek’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 Dove Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Dove Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dove Creek typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Dove Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dove Creek typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dove Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dove Creek sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 2, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dove Creek?
The federal record around Dove Creek is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Dove Creek?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dove Creek's scale — its 6b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dove Creek'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 Dove Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dove Creek's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 366 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dove Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dove Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 16 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dove Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dove Creek's boundary and the 366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dove Creek sits in the Colorado Plateaus — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dove Creek's 366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dolores County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dolores 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 Dolores County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dove Creek's 366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dove Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Dove Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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