Downieville-Lawson-Dumont, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont, 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Downieville-Lawson-Dumont — the short answer
Downieville-Lawson-Dumont, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 126 days between hard freezes, across 498 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~126
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 498 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's 126-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Each reading below is measured for Downieville-Lawson-Dumont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDownieville-Lawson-Dumont runs about 126 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
MeasuredDownieville-Lawson-Dumont 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont is in
Downieville-Lawson-Dumont sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clear Creek County.
What Grows in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Every plant below cleared Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's own zone 5b and its 126-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Blackwell Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Pester #1265Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LincolnMining · 1700 ft
- Downieville Fuel Stop Rexoco #35Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Morning Star TunnelMining · 2100 ft
- Mary C.Mining · 2100 ft
- Camp BirdMining · 2100 ft
- Earl of KentMining · 2100 ft
- HelensleaMining · 2100 ft
- United FreelandMining · 2100 ft
- Katie S.Mining · 2300 ft
- CopenhagenMining · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Downieville-Lawson-Dumont'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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont.
Total Sites
751
within ~10 miles of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Downieville-Lawson-Dumont, Mining runs higher than the national average — 671 sites within ~10 miles of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont. 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont average
Your land is one point inside Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Everything above resolves to Downieville-Lawson-Dumont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 498 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont Average
Downieville-Lawson-Dumont Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
- ●One soil character for all of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
- ●Frost dates read at Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's scale: May 23 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Downieville-Lawson-Dumont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Downieville-Lawson-Dumont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Downieville-Lawson-Dumont average
How we know this about Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont’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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont
When does frost risk typically end in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont typically lands around May 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 126 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Downieville-Lawson-Dumont sees about 126 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Sep 12, about 91 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont?
The federal record around Downieville-Lawson-Dumont runs heavier than most — 751 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (671), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 gardeners stretch the season in Downieville-Lawson-Dumont?
With about 126 frost-free days between hard freezes, Downieville-Lawson-Dumont 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 154 to 182 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's scale — its 5b band and its 126-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont'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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's own scale — its own ~126-day season between 28°F freezes, the 498 acres it covers and 751 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Sep 26 and the ~126-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 751 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Downieville-Lawson-Dumont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's boundary and the 498 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~126-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's 498 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clear Creek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clear Creek 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 Clear Creek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Downieville-Lawson-Dumont's 498 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Downieville-Lawson-Dumont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 498 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 Downieville-Lawson-Dumont-wide figureread your own land →