Eckley, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Eckley, 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 Eckley 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 Eckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Eckley — the short answer
Eckley, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 303 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 Eckley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eckley's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eckley
Each reading below is measured for Eckley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEckley runs about 177 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
MeasuredEckley 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 Eckley is in
Eckley sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Eckley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yuma County.
What Grows in Eckley
Every plant below cleared Eckley's own zone 5b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eckley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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 Eckley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eckley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB00204626BCCNitrate · 750 ft
- TIGT ECKLEY TOWN BORDER STATIONBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SB00204623CDCNitrate · 0.6 mi
- School District Rj-1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Spittoon FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SB00104615DBB, GAYLORD HAGEMAN, STOCK WELLNitrate · 4.1 mi
- SB00104616DCA, HARVEY PLETCHER, STOCK WELLNitrate · 4.6 mi
- SB00104621BBDNitrate · 5.2 mi
- YUMA FEEDLOTCAFO · 5.2 mi
- Dale KirchenschlayerUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- SB00204510DCCNitrate · 5.9 mi
- SB00104626CBCNitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eckley'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 Eckley.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Eckley
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eckley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eckley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eckley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Eckley — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Eckley
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 Eckley average
Your land is one point inside Eckley
Everything above resolves to Eckley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Eckley Average
Eckley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Eckley
- ●One soil character for all of Eckley
- ●Frost dates read at Eckley's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eckley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eckley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eckley, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eckley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eckley average
How we know this about Eckley
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 Eckley’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 Eckley
When does frost risk typically end in Eckley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eckley typically lands around Apr 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 May 14.
When is the first frost in Eckley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eckley 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 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eckley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eckley sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 3, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eckley?
The federal record around Eckley is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Nitrate 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 Eckley?
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 Eckley's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eckley'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 Eckley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eckley's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eckley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eckley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 17 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eckley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eckley's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eckley's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eckley's 303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yuma County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yuma 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 Yuma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eckley's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eckley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Eckley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region