Eldorado Springs, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Eldorado Springs, 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 Eldorado Springs 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 Eldorado Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eldorado Springs — the short answer
Eldorado Springs, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- 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 Eldorado Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eldorado Springs's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Eldorado Springs's own 30-year record measures about 184 days between 28°F killing freezes — 42 days longer than Boulder County's ~142. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Eldorado Springs's ~184-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eldorado Springs
Each reading below is measured for Eldorado Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEldorado Springs runs about 184 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
MeasuredEldorado Springs 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 Eldorado Springs is in
Eldorado Springs sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Eldorado Springs's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Boulder County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Eldorado Springs
Every plant below cleared Eldorado Springs's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eldorado Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Eldorado Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eldorado Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00107021BDAB SITE C89Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- WOW Markets Inc DBA Eldorado Corner MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Wesley D Conda IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Standard Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SC00107125DACAU SITE C79Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- Hogan RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SC00107017AACD SITE C88Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- SC00107022BABC1 SITE C87Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- ARCOSA ESC BOULDERToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- LAFARGE WEST INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- SC00107015CAAC SITE C71Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- NATIONAL WIND TECHNOLOGY CENTERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eldorado Springs'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 Eldorado Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eldorado Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eldorado Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eldorado Springs, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Eldorado Springs. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Eldorado Springs
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 Eldorado Springs average
Your land is one point inside Eldorado Springs
Everything above resolves to Eldorado Springs as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Eldorado Springs Average
Eldorado Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Eldorado Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Eldorado Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Eldorado Springs's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eldorado Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eldorado Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eldorado Springs, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eldorado Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eldorado Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eldorado Springs average
How we know this about Eldorado Springs
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 Eldorado Springs’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 Eldorado Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Eldorado Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eldorado Springs typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Eldorado Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eldorado Springs typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eldorado Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eldorado Springs sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 7, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eldorado Springs?
The federal record around Eldorado Springs runs heavier than most — 936 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (374), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Eldorado Springs?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eldorado Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eldorado Springs'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 Eldorado Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eldorado Springs's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,654 acres it covers and 936 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eldorado Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eldorado Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 21 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 936 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eldorado Springs, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eldorado Springs's boundary and the 1,654 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Eldorado Springs sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eldorado Springs's 1,654 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boulder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boulder 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 Boulder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eldorado Springs's 1,654 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eldorado Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,654 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 Eldorado Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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