Glenwood Springs, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Glenwood 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 Glenwood 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 Glenwood Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glenwood Springs — the short answer
Glenwood Springs, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Glenwood Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glenwood Springs's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glenwood Springs
Each reading below is measured for Glenwood Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlenwood Springs runs about 164 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
MeasuredGlenwood 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 Glenwood Springs is in
Glenwood Springs sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Glenwood Springs's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Garfield County is mostly Colorado Plateaus. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Glenwood Springs
Every plant below cleared Glenwood Springs's own zone 6a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glenwood Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Glenwood Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glenwood Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SALLY BEAUTY SUPPLY #10201Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- CDOT Glenwood SpringsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PETCO STORE #1446Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION -MAINT FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RFTA - Roaring Fork Transit AgencyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LOWE'S OF GLENWOOD SPRINGS, CO #1905Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #17122Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- TARGET STORE T2029Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Orrison DistributingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GLENWOOD CAVERNS ADVENTURE PARKBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GERBER COLLISION & GLASS - GLENWOOD SPRINGSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Coca Cola Bottling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glenwood 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 Glenwood Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glenwood Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glenwood Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Glenwood 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 Glenwood Springs average
Your land is one point inside Glenwood Springs
Everything above resolves to Glenwood Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Glenwood Springs Average
Glenwood Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Glenwood Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Glenwood Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Glenwood Springs's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glenwood Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glenwood Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glenwood Springs, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glenwood Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glenwood Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glenwood Springs average
How we know this about Glenwood Springs
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 Glenwood 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 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 Glenwood Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Glenwood Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glenwood Springs typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Glenwood Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glenwood Springs typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glenwood Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glenwood Springs sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 26, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glenwood Springs?
The federal record around Glenwood Springs shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Glenwood Springs?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glenwood Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glenwood 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 Glenwood Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Glenwood Springs's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,734 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glenwood Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glenwood Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 10 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glenwood Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glenwood Springs's boundary and the 3,734 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Glenwood Springs sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glenwood Springs's 3,734 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garfield 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 Garfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glenwood Springs's 3,734 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glenwood 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 3,734 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Glenwood Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoGlenwood Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides