Fountain, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Fountain, 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 Fountain 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 Fountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fountain — the short answer
Fountain, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Fountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fountain's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fountain
Each reading below is measured for Fountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFountain runs about 183 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
MeasuredFountain 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 Fountain is in
Fountain sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fountain's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Paso County.
What Grows in Fountain
Every plant below cleared Fountain's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fountain?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Fountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC01506533CBDNitrate · 0.7 mi
- Moon Fountain Mesa LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Union Pacific - Fountain Section HqUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SC01606505CCB FOUNTAIN 3Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- City Of Fountain Street DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ALABAMA AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SC01606506DAA FOUNTAIN 2Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- FOUNTAIN NO.1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- City Of Fountain Police DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Town MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Loaf N Jug #80Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Rayco AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fountain'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 Fountain.
Total Sites
750
within ~10 miles of Fountain
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fountain, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 410 sites within ~10 miles of Fountain. 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 Fountain
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 Fountain average
Your land is one point inside Fountain
Everything above resolves to Fountain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 city 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 Fountain Average
Fountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fountain
- ●One soil character for all of Fountain
- ●Frost dates read at Fountain's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fountain's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fountain, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fountain average
How we know this about Fountain
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fountain’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Fountain
When does frost risk typically end in Fountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Fountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain 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 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fountain sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 4, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fountain?
The federal record around Fountain is a meaningful one — 750 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (410), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Fountain?
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 Fountain's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fountain'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 Fountain’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fountain's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,299 acres it covers and 750 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 18 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 750 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fountain, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fountain's boundary and the 14,299 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fountain's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fountain's 14,299 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 Fountain's 14,299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,299 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Fountain-wide figureread your own land →