Fort Garland, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Garland, 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 Garland 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 Garland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Garland — the short answer
Fort Garland, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 241 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~143
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 241 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 Fort Garland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Garland's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Garland
Each reading below is measured for Fort Garland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Garland runs about 143 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
MeasuredFort Garland 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 Fort Garland is in
Fort Garland sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort Garland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Costilla County.
What Grows in Fort Garland
Every plant below cleared Fort Garland's own zone 5b and its 143-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Garland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — 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 Fort Garland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Garland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alta Convenience #3205Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Ute Cafe & Conoco Hwy 160Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Fort Garland YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Navajo Trail ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- High Altitude ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CDOT Fort GarlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Sierra Grande Schools R-30Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Glen WiescampUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CC03007234DCD RG64Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CC03007324DDDNitrate · 3.0 mi
- Blanca R V ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- CC03007311ADD1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Garland'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 Garland.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Fort Garland
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Garland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Garland
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Garland
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 Garland average
Your land is one point inside Fort Garland
Everything above resolves to Fort Garland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 241 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 Garland Average
Fort Garland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Fort Garland
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Garland
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Garland's scale: May 11 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Garland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Garland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Garland, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Garland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Garland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Garland average
How we know this about Fort Garland
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 Garland’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 Garland
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Garland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Garland typically lands around May 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Fort Garland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Garland typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 143 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Garland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Garland sees about 143 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 17, about 108 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Garland?
The federal record around Fort Garland is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Fort Garland?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort Garland 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 171 to 199 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fort Garland's scale — its 5b band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Garland'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 Garland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Garland's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 241 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Garland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Garland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 1 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Garland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Garland's boundary and the 241 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Garland's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Garland's 241 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Costilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Costilla 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 Costilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Garland's 241 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Garland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 241 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fort Garland-wide figureread your own land →
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