Elbert, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elbert, 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 Elbert 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 Elbert — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elbert — the short answer
Elbert, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 351 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 351 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 Elbert's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elbert's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elbert
Each reading below is measured for Elbert itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElbert runs about 151 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
MeasuredElbert 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 Elbert is in
Elbert sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elbert's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elbert County.
What Grows in Elbert
Every plant below cleared Elbert's own zone 5b and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elbert?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Elbert
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elbert. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hi-Test ElbertUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Elbert Rd Warehouse BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Peaceful Valley Scout RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WOERNER ENGINEERING INCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Morris Lease Well 13-6 13-12Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Hay Lease Well 4-1 4-9 4-15Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Morris Lease Well 14-16 24-4 24-Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Morris Lease Well 13-8-13-14Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Johnson Lease Well 6-4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Niera Lease Well 8-3 8-11Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- SC01006307BCC DAWMAS27Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- SC00906416CDB DAWMAS22Nitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elbert'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 Elbert.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of Elbert
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elbert
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elbert
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elbert, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Elbert. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Elbert
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 Elbert average
Your land is one point inside Elbert
Everything above resolves to Elbert as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 351 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 Elbert Average
Elbert Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Elbert
- ●One soil character for all of Elbert
- ●Frost dates read at Elbert's scale: May 7 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elbert's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elbert
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elbert, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elbert averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elbert — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elbert average
How we know this about Elbert
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 Elbert’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 Elbert
When does frost risk typically end in Elbert?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elbert typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Elbert?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elbert typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elbert?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elbert sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 21, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elbert?
The federal record around Elbert is a meaningful one — 45 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Elbert?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elbert's scale — its 5b band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elbert'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 Elbert’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elbert's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 351 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elbert's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elbert's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 5 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elbert, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elbert's boundary and the 351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elbert's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elbert's 351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elbert County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elbert 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 Elbert County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elbert's 351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elbert you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 351 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Elbert-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoElbert sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides