Dove Valley, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dove Valley, 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 Valley 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 Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dove Valley — the short answer
Dove Valley, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- 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 6a is Dove Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dove Valley's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dove Valley
Each reading below is measured for Dove Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDove Valley runs about 175 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 Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Valley is in
Dove Valley sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dove Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Arapahoe County.
What Grows in Dove Valley
Every plant below cleared Dove Valley's own zone 6a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dove Valley?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Dove Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dove Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLOBAL LINK TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 200 ft
- SBS-CISCOBrownfields · 200 ft
- Denver Jet Center - EastUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KEY LIME AIR CORPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- STRAIGHT FLIGHT INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- YORK SPACE SYSTEMS - POTOMACBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SIERRA SPACE DOVE VALLEYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- BEEHIVE INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1700 ft
- BEEHIVE INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- ASPEN AIR CORPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- AAI ACQUISITION INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Arapahoe County Justice CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dove Valley'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 Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dove Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dove Valley
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Dove Valley
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 Valley average
Your land is one point inside Dove Valley
Everything above resolves to Dove Valley 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 Dove Valley Average
Dove Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Dove Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Dove Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Dove Valley's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dove Valley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dove Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dove Valley, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dove Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dove Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dove Valley average
How we know this about Dove Valley
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 Valley’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 Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Dove Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dove Valley typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Dove Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dove Valley typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dove Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dove Valley sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 3, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dove Valley?
The federal record around Dove Valley runs heavier than most — 1,767 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (769), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dove Valley?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dove Valley's scale — its 6a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dove Valley'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 Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dove Valley's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,004 acres it covers and 1,767 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dove Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dove Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 17 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,767 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dove Valley, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dove Valley's boundary and the 2,004 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dove Valley's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dove Valley's 2,004 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 Dove Valley's 2,004 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dove Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,004 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Dove Valley-wide figureread your own land →