Gerrard, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gerrard, 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 Gerrard 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 Gerrard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gerrard — the short answer
Gerrard, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 121 days between hard freezes, across 767 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~121
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 767 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 5a is Gerrard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gerrard's 121-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gerrard
Each reading below is measured for Gerrard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGerrard runs about 121 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
MeasuredGerrard sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Gerrard is in
Gerrard sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Gerrard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rio Grande County.
What Grows in Gerrard
Every plant below cleared Gerrard's own zone 5a and its 121-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gerrard?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Gerrard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gerrard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wolf Creek RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Rio Grande County Road DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AT&T South Fork RsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- AT&T SOUTH FORKBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Jackson Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Twin Pine Motor SportsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Stone Forest Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Chinook Store & MotelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Rainbow ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CDOT South ForkUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- The Whistle PigUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- AT&Twolf Creek Pass RsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gerrard'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 Gerrard.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gerrard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gerrard, Mining runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Gerrard. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Gerrard
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 Gerrard average
Your land is one point inside Gerrard
Everything above resolves to Gerrard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 767 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 Gerrard Average
Gerrard Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Gerrard
- ●One soil character for all of Gerrard
- ●Frost dates read at Gerrard's scale: May 25 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gerrard's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gerrard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gerrard, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gerrard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gerrard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gerrard average
How we know this about Gerrard
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 Gerrard’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 Gerrard
When does frost risk typically end in Gerrard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gerrard typically lands around May 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Gerrard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gerrard typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 121 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gerrard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gerrard sees about 121 frost-free days — roughly May 25 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 15 to Sep 9, about 86 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gerrard?
The federal record around Gerrard runs heavier than most — 37 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Gerrard?
With about 121 frost-free days between hard freezes, Gerrard 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 149 to 177 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 25 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Gerrard's scale — its 5a band and its 121-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gerrard'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 Gerrard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gerrard's own scale — its own ~121-day season between 28°F freezes, the 767 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gerrard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gerrard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 25 and Sep 23 and the ~121-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gerrard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gerrard's boundary and the 767 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~121-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gerrard's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gerrard's 767 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rio Grande County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rio Grande 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 Rio Grande County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gerrard's 767 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gerrard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 767 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gerrard-wide figureread your own land →
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