Fort Carson, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Carson, 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 Fort Carson 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 Fort Carson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Carson — the short answer
Fort Carson, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 18K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 Fort Carson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Carson's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Carson
Each reading below is measured for Fort Carson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Carson runs about 181 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
MeasuredFort Carson 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 Fort Carson is in
Fort Carson sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Carson's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Paso County.
What Grows in Fort Carson
Every plant below cleared Fort Carson's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Carson?
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 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 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Fort Carson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Carson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY FORT CARSONPFAS · 0 ft
- ADESA COLORADO SPRINGSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SANMINA-SCI CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- Apple Computer IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WINDIGO LOGISTICS FOUNTAINBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- El Paso County School District 8Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Tomahawk Travel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SC01606506ACDNitrate · 2.3 mi
- PAVESTONE COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- SC01506530CCD3Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- Books Fountain TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Fountain Valley Maint ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Carson'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 Fort Carson.
Total Sites
904
within ~10 miles of Fort Carson
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Carson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Carson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Carson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 426 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Carson. 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 Fort Carson
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 Fort Carson average
Your land is one point inside Fort Carson
Everything above resolves to Fort Carson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Fort Carson Average
Fort Carson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fort Carson
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Carson
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Carson's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Carson's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Carson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Carson, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Carson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Carson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Carson average
How we know this about Fort Carson
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 Fort Carson’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 Fort Carson
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Carson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Carson 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 Fort Carson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Carson typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Carson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Carson sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 4, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Carson?
The federal record around Fort Carson runs heavier than most — 904 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (426), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fort Carson?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Carson's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Carson'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 Fort Carson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Carson's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,900 acres it covers and 904 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Carson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Carson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 18 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 904 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Carson, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Carson's boundary and the 17,900 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Carson's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Carson's 17,900 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Carson's 17,900 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Carson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,900 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fort Carson-wide figureread your own land →
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