Edwards, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Edwards, 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 Edwards 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 Edwards — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edwards — the short answer
Edwards, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Edwards's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edwards's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edwards
Each reading below is measured for Edwards itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdwards runs about 135 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
MeasuredEdwards 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 Edwards is in
Edwards sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Edwards's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eagle County.
What Grows in Edwards
Every plant below cleared Edwards's own zone 5b and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edwards?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Edwards
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edwards. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00508207DABNitrate · 1.3 mi
- CORDILLERA METRO DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SC00508207AABNitrate · 1.8 mi
- SC00508206DDCNitrate · 2.0 mi
- B & B Calhoun Eaton PitUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Edwards Building CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Singletree Golf MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Stop N Save #18Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- OLDCASTLE SW GROUP, INC. DBA B&B EXCAVATING INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- OLDCASTLE SW GROUP, INC. DBA B&B EXCAVATING INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- Edwards Wastewater Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- James E Kemp & Co Esther R KempUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edwards'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 Edwards.
Total Sites
210
within ~10 miles of Edwards
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edwards
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edwards
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edwards, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of Edwards. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Edwards
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 Edwards average
Your land is one point inside Edwards
Everything above resolves to Edwards as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Edwards Average
Edwards Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Edwards
- ●One soil character for all of Edwards
- ●Frost dates read at Edwards's scale: May 16 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edwards's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edwards
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edwards, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edwards averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edwards — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edwards average
How we know this about Edwards
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 Edwards’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 Edwards
When does frost risk typically end in Edwards?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edwards typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Edwards?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edwards typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edwards?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edwards sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 14, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edwards?
The federal record around Edwards is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (132), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Edwards?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Edwards 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Edwards's scale — its 5b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edwards'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 Edwards’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Edwards's own scale — its own ~135-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,047 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edwards's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edwards's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Sep 28 and the ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edwards, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edwards's boundary and the 17,047 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edwards's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edwards's 17,047 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eagle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eagle 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 Eagle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edwards's 17,047 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edwards you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,047 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Edwards-wide figureread your own land →